Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: John

Ministry by the Spirit and the Word

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 11, 1996.

About this sermon

Christ’s ministry does not end at the resurrection; it continues afterward through the Spirit and the Word together, which John 20 stages through its own characteristic double language. Thomas’s doubt supplies one clear example of a faith that falls short of the real thing. Throughout, Christ keeps pressing his hearers past earthly categories toward a heavenly reality they have not yet fully grasped.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Next week, I’m hoping that all of our colds and flus are gone, because you might have noted that we are scheduled to sing the 119X next week. And I think a number of you know how challenging that is. We are reading from John’s Gospel, Chapter 20 this evening. and we will start our reading from verse 19. This is John 20, verse 19. Give your attention to God’s holy inspired word.

When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, And when the doors were shut, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, were saying to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I shall see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. And be not unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God.

Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believe. Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

Our God, our prayers are not only for those who would labor in your word today. Such prayers, we know, being pleasing to you. But our prayers would also be on behalf of those who are called to rule amongst your people, that they may rule wisely, lovingly and well. And Father, we are asking that such rule as is expressed for your church and in our midst would not be grievous to us. Rather, O God, may we receive that rule as we receive the authority of Jesus Christ himself. We pray likewise that your mercy would be multiplied to your church in granting to her many who would serve her sacrificially and in the office of the diaconate. So throughout your church, we ask that there may be those of strength, those, Lord, who are given particular insight into the nature of the office and great zeal to the performance of it. Our Father, build up your churches through the offices that you grant to them. And Father, we pray that we might be a people profited by your ministry for us. Hear us, O God, for the sake of Christ, who is the Head and King of the Church. Amen. Now, it may seem as if I’m jumping ahead this evening, and yes, I am. I’m moving out of sequence.

We were moving through those passages in the latter chapters of John’s Gospel that dealt with the Holy Spirit, particularly Jesus’ promise. of the Holy Spirit to his disciples. We have leaped ahead to chapter 20 this evening for a particular reason, and that is to present some summary treatment of John’s gospel that may be helpful to us at this point.

Now, we have been considering John’s gospel a great deal of late. For instance, we have been looking at John chapter 6. We have concluded messages on John chapter 6, using that as background for our sermons during the past two years at our communion celebrations. We have also now come to that point in our consideration of the person and work of the Holy Spirit where we find ourselves in John’s Gospel, considering how the Holy Spirit is presented to us from the distinct angle of John’s vision. So, we have been spending a great deal of time of late in John, and I thought this evening that we might spend some time trying to bring together the various strands of our reflection. Now, the points that we have made most recently with regard to John’s gospel are these.

We have set out in our messages concerning the Holy Spirit the outline for the gospel as a whole. Now, I have set this before you on a number of occasions. And I have done it as recently as last week. I will just briefly restate that outline for you so that you have it in mind this evening. The first 18 verses of the first chapter is the prologue.

We all know that portion of John’s Gospel. From the 19th verse of that first chapter through the conclusion of the 12th chapter, we have the first main section of John’s Gospel. which has been called by some the Book of the Psalms. Then from chapter 13 through the 20th chapter, we have what has been called the Book of Glory. The Gospel concludes with chapter 21.

Now we have been working with this outline in relationship to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, particularly as the Holy Spirit has been presented by Jesus in this gospel. Each of the main sections of the gospel will have its particular angle on the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s ministry. For instance, the first main section of the gospel, the so-called Book of Psalms, from that point in the first chapter at which it begins, verse 19, through chapter 12, you have a focus upon the Holy Spirit and his work where there is a concentration upon the missionary activity of Christ, the Church, and the Holy Spirit’s relationship to Christ and the Church in that regard. So in the Book of the Signs, it says, if you have before you the unbelieving world, And the particular focus with regard to the Holy Spirit is how the Holy Spirit is operative in bringing the word or bringing the message of grace to an unbelieving world.

So you have this angle of vision that is focusing upon the missionary intention of the gospel. But then there’s this shift. As you move into the thirteenth chapter of John and you go on towards the conclusion of the gospel, And concern yourself there with what has been called the Book of Glory. Now you are focusing particularly upon the disciples of Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s particular ministry to them.

So you have in that section, for instance, the promise that Christ makes that the Spirit will come and bring to remembrance everything that he has said, everything that he has taught them. You have in that section also the promise that is given to the disciples that the Holy Spirit will come in a particular way. He will come as the comforter, the paraphernalia. He will come with comfort for God he led to Christ’s Church.

So you have this development within John’s gospel as you move from the book of the signs at the beginning of the gospel to the book of glory at its conclusion. You move from Christ’s concentration upon an unbelieving world where signs are important, it would seem, to the latter book of glory where the focus is upon the communal aspect of the people of God and the particular aspect of ministry that will be associated with the disciples and those that follow in their train. bring to light the comforts and the exhortations and the admonitions that are peculiar to the Church and to her message.

So that’s how we’ve looked at the Holy Spirit in relationship to the outline in John’s Gospel, what we have been speaking of lately. But let’s remind ourselves also of what we found in our study of John Chapter 6. Just as a reminder to you, you may recall that I suggested that the entirety of the Gospel of John is moving towards Chapter 21. We leapt from Chapter 6 to Chapter 21 and tried to establish the connection between those two chapters.

We also noted that as we look at chapter 21, the concluding word, which John had to say, that we noted particularly there an emphasis upon the ministry, the ministry that was to develop in and through the apostles and then be there for the Church as long as Christ had not as yet returned.

The ministry then, as we saw presented to us there, could not depend alone upon the resurrection of Christ, nor could it depend upon a personal audience with the risen Christ. We saw that both were inadequate in the case of Peter. What was necessary then for this ministry to take shape and to be effective was the continued presence of Christ himself, no, not in his body, but by the Word and by the Spirit. So it is. that chapter 21 presents to us the end point to which John had been pressing all along, and that is to make a statement about the continuing ministry of the Church, that it cannot depend, as I’ve already said, simply upon the resurrection of Christ, nor can it depend simply upon a personal audience with the risen Christ. Peter had that, yet it wasn’t adequate.

What was needed was the continued presence of Christ himself by the Word and by the Spirit. Chapter 6, in fact, all that John has to say through the course of his gospel is moving in that direction, to convince us of the necessity of Christ’s continual presence for ministry, that it depends upon his Word and Spirit to be effectual. Now, this works itself out, you see, both in terms of what we’ve already considered in the book of the signs and the book of glory. If you see Jesus in the first part of the gospel moving towards an unbelieving world, and in the second part of the gospel you see him particularly relating to the church itself, then you see his continued presence and the ministry that is built upon his Word and Spirit is the very foundation for the Church’s effectiveness in both of those areas. The Church can’t be effective unless the living Christ is present by Word and Spirit and is effectual in bringing about the results that we would hope to see. Nor is there life, mysteriously speaking, for the Church, nor is there effective ministry for the Church. unless Christ is alive and working in our midst by his word and spirit.

But now let’s relate these recent studies that we have made to earlier messages that we’ve preached on the Gospel of John. For example, in this regard, we need to consider the conclusion of chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. a text that is ordinarily appealed to as the purpose text in John’s Gospel.

Now, how do you approach this text? Let me ask you that question. How do you approach these two verses with which the twentieth chapter of John concludes? Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, that these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life. How do you approach those verses? How do you understand them?

Do you understand them to be exclusively evangelistic? That’s how they are ordinarily interpreted, I might say. Are they merely intended for an unbelieving audience? My contention has been that they are meant both for the unbelieving world and for the confessing church.

And this is in keeping with what we have seen with regard to the gospel thus far, the book of the signs as the ministry of Christ is directed towards an unbelieving world, the book of glory as it is directed towards the church. So everything seemingly is coming together here in these latter verses of chapter 20. So my contention has been, as we approach these verses, these very strategic verses, these very important verses, that they are meant both for the unbelieving world and the confessing church. In other words, as a purpose statement for the gospel, the gospel is meant both for the unbelieving world, yes, it can be used evangelistically, but it is also meant to be a minister inward to the church, the confessing church. But you might step back and, as you look at these words, ask yourself, how can you apply these words to the confessing Church? Hasn’t the confessing Church already believed? In what sense can you apply these words to the Church?

Well, it’s at this point that we are pulled very deliberately into the ambiguity and the subtleties of John’s Gospel. We must understand For instance, John’s use of double language throughout his gospel. And that use of double language will be effective not just as the Church presents its evangelistic message, but as it also endeavors to serve the believing Church. There are examples of this double language in John’s gospel, as you know.

For instance, in John chapter 3, you have the double use of life. There is life which we get from our parents. There is life which God gives. There is life, and then there is life. In John chapter 4, Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well. They’re having a discussion about water. She wants to talk about water that comes out of the well. He wants to talk about living water, or eternal water. There is water, and then there is water.

In John chapter 6, you have discussion about bread. There is the bread that the Jews seek to feed their stomachs, and Jesus wants to present to them the bread that comes down out of heaven. Bread, if they eat of it, they will never hunger again. So you have this double use of language throughout.

Here in chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, you have a double use of faith. There’s faith, or at least a reflection upon that W’s. There is faith, and then there is faith. Yes, it will have its application to an unbelieving world that actually thinks that it’s believing, but it will also have its application to the Church. Church filled with people who are sitting comfortably week after week thinking things are just fine. Believe? Yes, I believe. Have faith?

Certainly, I have faith. But John’s gospel, as it has its intention to push people to ultimate realizations, as it has within its view the world, the unbelieving world, as well as the so-called confessing church or believing church, is going to set these things before the audience that receives it in the interest of bringing about resolution.

You have to move from life to life. Just having biological life isn’t enough. You have to move from water to water. Just having a supply out of your spigot isn’t enough. You have to move from bread to bread. You know, just going down to the store and picking up a loaf of bread is not adequate. You must keep on the living bread.

And it is the same with regard to faith. There is faith, and then there is faith. This is what I plead for you. But you understand this, I know, that it may be difficult for some of you. I realize that for some of you, you may not really think that religion is your interest, or penchant, or primary concern in life. It’s okay for preachers. It might even be okay for elders. But you see, Jesus’ interest here is not just for preachers and elders. It’s for his children, those who are part of the confessing church. And the language here in John is intended to push you to the wall, to drive you up against the wall, so that you might think, consider, whether or not true life true water, true bread, true faith, belongs to you.

Now, there are many instances in John’s Gospel where we find a double-use setting. For instance, right before that interview and exchange with Nicodemus in John chapter 3, You have in John 2 verses 23 through 25 a statement that many people that were coming out to see Jesus believed. The statement is made by John that they believed, but then John goes on to tell us that Jesus will not entrust himself to them.

Now if they believed, why wouldn’t he try to entrust himself to them? Because there’s faith, and then there’s faith. What was the particular difficulty of the people at the end of John two. It was they had seen the sign. And therefore they believe the faith that they have with condition upon the point that they could be held. And John is saying a faith that is based upon.

It doesn’t make it. So that’s John chapter 2, but if you move ahead to John chapter 12, verses 42 and 43, you find there that John makes another very interesting statement. He there tells us that the Pharisees believed. But how can he say that the Pharisees believed? He says that they have a faith that they believed. But again, there’s disqualifying. They would not confess Jesus, John goes on to tell us, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. They were afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue. They feared men more than they feared God.

One of the other passages that speaks about this matter comes from John 20. Not the section that we read from, but earlier in this chapter, one of the more enigmatic statements we find in John’s Gospel, verse 8, you have the account there after the resurrection of Peter and the beloved disciple rushing to the tomb. And we’re told that Peter goes in first, but afterwards then the other disciple. who had come first to the tune the text tells us verse eight, and he saw and he believed. We are told that he believes, but if you keep reading that section, you come down to verse 10, where it tells you that both Peter and the beloved disciple went home as if nothing had happened. There’s faith. And then there’s faith. True faith will come to expression, particularly in the story that follows with Mary Magdalene.

Remember how she is there at the tomb, weeping? A figure appears. She doesn’t know who it is. She states it for the gardener. She addresses him. Where have you taken the body? The figure responds, Mary. She recognizes that this is the risen Christ. And at that point, she tries to hold on to it. And Jesus says to her, stop clinging to it, stop holding on to it, for I must ascend. Her faith is crippled because she thinks that the object of that faith is to have something here in the world. Jesus tells her that he ascends, that faith is going to be informed by that ascension into glory, it is going to be focused upon that ascension into glory and the world into which Christ has gone.

So, here you have the double use of language. Remember what we said? There’s life and then there’s life? Well, there’s earthly life and then there is eternal life. There is life that belongs to this world and then there is heavenly life. There is water, water that belongs to this creation, and there is water that is eternal or heavenly. There is bread of this creation. There is heavenly bread. There is faith that seemingly is adequate for this world, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the realities of heaven.

There’s the contrast then consistently throughout John’s gospel between the earthly and the heavenly, between the flesh and the spirit, the spirit being indicative of the heavenly world. So here are our most recent messages on John’s Gospel and our earlier messages on John’s Gospel. How will we relate the two? How will we relate what we have said about John Chapter 21 and what he was intending to tell us about the ministry of the Church through the risen Christ who continues with us in his word and his spirit, how will we relate that to what we have been talking about concerning the Holy Spirit himself? Well, you see, the way in which all of this comes together is that the ministry which Christ is continually performing now in his church is precisely that which makes the distinction that I’ve just been making.

That’s the only ministry Christ has. There is no other ministry. In fact, he doesn’t even care about anything else. Believe me. The only point he is prosecuting is the distinction between the bread of this world and true bread. He wants you to understand and realize the distinction. That is the focus of his ministry at present. It’s not taking over the world. It’s not organizing a political party. It’s not mobilizing somehow for world dominion. It’s not becoming experts in sociology, philosophy, and any other ology. The objective of Christ is to make sure that his people understand the distinction between bread of this creation and eternal bread. Life biological and life eternal. That’s it. And that is what this pulpit has endeavored to proclaim to you.

Now, if you want something else, you’re going to have to leave. I mean, you’re not going to get it here. I’m sorry. If you want to know how to raise your kids, If you want to know how to have a better sex life, if you want to know how to make money, if you want to know how to improve your golf score, if you want twelve easy steps to a better prayer life, you’re not going to get it here. This is not what this church is about. This church is about the difference between bread of creation and eternal bread. We have no other ministry. We can have no other ministry because Christ has no other ministry. Well, I assume because you’re still with me after 20 years that you are here because you have seen and appreciated these things and you want real bread, real faith, and real life. And I trust that is set. Father, what a marvelous, wonderful gospel John’s gospel is.

We could spend our days reflecting on it and not begin to comprehend all of its riches and depth. Yet, Lord, the simple truths that it declares are there for us. We pray by the continued ministry of our Our Savior, by the word and spirit that we, O God, would be encouraged to grab hold of these treasures for our benefit, and for the good of your people generally, and yes, for your glory. Help us, O Father, as if we would understand the ministry of our Savior better and better, his intention, namely to bring us to that higher world in which we shall behold your face forever. May the communion that has been promised to us there be already at work in us so that we are aware of the fact that the life that we long for is something that has already been granted to us by grace. We are already enjoying it presently. We pray, Father, for the light in these things and also a determination to see that they are always foremost in our lives. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 11, 1996
An Absence That Is an Advance

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 4, 1996.

About this sermon

In John 14 Christ’s coming physical absence brings an advance: greater works, greater access, and a glory his presence alone could not yet show. Verse 15 ties love to obedience, and 14:16-17 exalts the Spirit outright. By departing, Christ gives more of himself.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Tonight I would ask you to turn to Luke’s Gospel, chapter 11, as we begin. This is Luke, chapter 11, beginning with verse 9. He would give your attention to God’s holy and fallible word. And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it shall be opened.

Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” And then turning over to John chapter 14, beginning at verse 1. John 14, verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

And you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man, no one comes to the Father but through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. For now on, you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. Believe in me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.

Otherwise, believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that he may be with you forever. That is, the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know him, but you know him because he abides in you and will be with you.

Bless us, O God, in our confidence that we are your children. Even as children, O God, correct us that we, being reproved by you from your word, would show ourselves those willing sons and daughters in your household. Lord, work in us even as the word is read to us and as it is proclaimed to us that we might be strengthened in our resolve to live for you. Dear Lord, we also pray for those who are without faith But it might please you to draw those who are yet to be drawn into your kingdom by the preaching of the word. And may it please you, O God, to use the ministry of this church and other churches to do just that. We pray this through Christ. Amen. Let me remind you, as we begin our message this evening, about the outline of John’s Gospel. It is a very simple outline.

The Gospel opens with its famous prologue, chapter 1, verses 1 through 18, a section well worth committing to memory, and I’m sure that some of you have done just that. Prologue then is followed by the first main section of the Gospel, the 19th verse of that first chapter through the conclusion of the 12th chapter.

And this section has been called the Book of the Signs by some commentators, some authorities on John’s Gospel. It has been called the Book of the Signs because in it Jesus, by many signs, shows himself to be the Word, or God himself made flesh. And as the Word, or God himself made flesh, Christ comes to his own, but we are told his own do not receive him. This first section, then, the Book of the Signs, is followed by a second section, beginning with the thirteenth chapter and running through the conclusion of chapter twenty. And this section has been called the Book of Glory, because in it Jesus brings to light the glory that belongs to him, even as he comes to that glory through his death, resurrection, and ascension, for the purpose of bestowing his glory upon his own people, God’s elect.

Finally, we have Chapter 21, of which we spoke this morning. which functions as a postscript or an epilogue of sorts to the gospel, or maybe much better, as the gospel’s conclusion, in which, as we saw this morning, we find an accounting that summarizes the gospel and speaks effectively about the continuing ministry of the Church, even as Jesus Christ is the source and substance of that ministry. Therefore, we have for our outline of the gospel, the prologue, the two main sections of the gospel, the book of signs and the book of glory, then the conclusion, chapter 21.

Our interest presently is in the second main section, chapters 13 through 20, the book of glory as we have identified it. and specifically what this section of the Gospel has to say about the Holy Spirit. You may recall that our study of the earlier chapters in John yielded for us the intention in those chapters with respect to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit was particularly considered in relationship to the missionary appeal to an unbelieving world, or an unbelieving populace. While in these latter chapters now, in the Book of Glory, the Holy Spirit is introduced to us more in terms of the pastoral ministry of the Church. The Holy Spirit has great significance for the Church. as he is introduced in this section, the latter section of John’s Gospel, particularly beginning here in chapter 14, and that in light of Jesus’ announcement of his departure out of this world.

Jesus tells us, as he has told the disciples in this context, he is going away to prepare a place for his own. in chapter 14. But now it is especially with his departure in view, and with that departure as imminent, that Jesus labors to communicate this precise truth.

Namely, his physical absence will not mean a retreat in the program of redemption or a diminishment in the blessings to God’s elect. His physical absence will not mean a retreat in the program of redemption or a diminishment in the blessings to and for God’s elect. Rather, Jesus’ physical absence will mean an unprecedented advance in God’s program, and it will mean the arrival of a day of unparalleled, unequaled glory. Jesus’ physical absence will mean an unprecedented advance in God’s program, and it will also mean the arrival of a day of unequaled glory. for God’s people.

In chapter 14, verse 12, Jesus says that he who believes in him will perform signs like his, or, he goes on to say, even greater works than he performed because he goes to the Father. Now, I know how this text has usually been interpreted, at least in this century, by those who have been part of the Holy Spirit movements. In fact, we have on the east side of Pittsburgh a very large congregation with a corollary large school, which is called Greater Worth. This church or assembly with school is playing upon this passage. and playing upon it in charismatic and Holy Spirit theology ways. The greater works, of course, are those that belong to the explosion of charismatic visitation that this century has witnessed.

But, of course, we have taken these words a little differently and have seen them in terms of the unrestricted advance of the Word of God to the ends of the earth, so that now there are those who are being gathered in from the four corners of the earth, those gathered in being God’s elect for his assembly. This advance, these greater works in light of what Christ now does from heaven, specifically through the Holy Spirit, that which he did not do while he was here present physically in the earth.

Now in verses 13 and 14, Jesus announces new and unparalleled access. Not just the fact that the advance is considered in terms of the greater works which the church will do, But now Jesus moves on in verses 13 and 14 to speak of new and unparalleled access in a new day of prayer.

Ask me anything, he says, putting it in the most extreme language, in order that we might not miss the point. Ask me anything, he says, and I will do it. So startling is this revelation that Jesus doesn’t hesitate to repeat himself. saying the same thing again there in the 14th verse, as it were, that he said in verse 13.

So, no, we are not retreating in the program of God. We are not in an era in which the blessings are diminished for us because Jesus has gone from us here physically and is now in heaven. We are living in a day of unprecedented advance, and this is being brought out by Jesus as he speaks to his disciples prior to his departure.

In verse 15, he will reign things in a bit. On the background of these statements, these rather startling statements that he has made in verses 13 and 14, He will reign things in a bit by reminding his disciples that this new and unparalleled day of access for prayer is not devoid of covenantal reality, that it is an obedient love, that it is a love intent upon obeying Christ’s commands. This then becomes the identifying mark for those for whom the new day of prayer will be this unprecedented advance. Now, it should be noted here that the covenantal dress in which this new day of access in prayer is presented in verse 15 of that 14th chapter has its own superlative features. Yes, it’s coming in covenantal language, but even with the language covenantally conditioned as it is, it will present to us the superlative character of that which has come by virtue of Christ’s departure for heaven and the advent of the Spirit.

The covenantal love spoken of here in the fifteenth verse is specifically directed toward Jesus himself. Note here, this is no general type of love for God. It is not a love for God even generally conceived, nor is it a love directed toward God specifically in terms of the restrictions of the Old Testament revelation. It is a love that is directed toward Christ. “‘If you love me,’ says Jesus, Jesus boldly calls for love that is directed specifically toward him. Along the same line, Jesus connects love for him with obedience to his commands.

What’s more, here is no general type of obedience to moral principles generally conceived. Much less is it obedience specifically defined or qualified by the Old Testament law or the restrictions of the Old Testament law. Instead, Jesus is introducing the covenantal obligation laid upon his people as obedience to his own commandments.

These commandments specifically focus in him what he has said, built upon who he is and what he has done. What Jesus is doing here has nothing to do with destroying the law, God forbid. He has said elsewhere that he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. Rather, he has said in that same context that he has come to fulfill the law in the remarkable, refreshing, invigorating, liberating day of the arrival of God’s kingdom, the arrival of God’s new covenant in him.

John 14, 15, therefore, is framed in covenantal language in order to make it plain that the new and better day that comes with Jesus’ departure, the day of greater works done by those who belong to him, the day of unprecedented access and response in prayer, is the day of the arrival for the substance of the new covenant. the reality of the New Covenant has now appeared. Indeed, as John himself has already said in his prologue, the law, that is, the Old Covenant, came through Moses, but grace and truth, that is, the New Covenant, came through Jesus Christ. Chapter 1, verse 17. My friends, now that Jesus has returned to the Father, the grace and truth of the new covenant bursts forth from heaven upon us in that marvelous way.

Now, in verses 16 and 17, Jesus specifically relates the arrival of the day of greater works, of unprecedented access and response in prayer. and of the New Covenant to his own prayer to the Father who, in answer to his son’s request, will give him neither snake nor scorpion but the Holy Spirit.

Or as he is identified here, the helper or the paragon. Now it’s not my intention this evening to get into a full exposition of what that name which Jesus gives to the Spirit means. My intention in what remains of the message this evening is to speak about Jesus’ method. You will note that Jesus here presents us with a rather strange construction.

He says that he will give to his church another helper. You may be asking yourself the question, well, if he’s going to give to us another helper, who is the first? Obviously, the first helper, or the first paraclete, is Jesus himself. Jesus is the original paraclete He is the original helper and comforter, who upon his departure sends to the Church someone like himself.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit, therefore, according to this language, are to be seen on a line, having parallel identities, parallel ministries. there is something extraordinary about Jesus’ construction at this point. For it’s as if there is a certain exaltation for the Spirit, a deliberate and certain exaltation for the Spirit, in what Jesus says. You see, the tendency in the Church, in part, will be towards an improper subordination of the Spirit to the Son, just as it will be towards an improper subordination of the Son to the Father. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus has told Philip, “‘He who has seen me has seen the Father.’” Verse 9. And here, Jesus will introduce the Holy Spirit as that other paraclete, that other helper, that other comforter, who seemingly stands at a higher level because, as verses 16 and 17 say, he, unlike Jesus, will abide with the Church forever. The extraordinary and superior, quote-unquote, ministry of the Holy Spirit is presented to us against a background that we find repeated often in the biblical story of salvation. Consider.

Moses gives way to another, Joshua, who administers the entrance of the Old Testament church into the Old Testament inheritance. Moses, one servant of God, gives way to another, Joshua, who has, seemingly, a higher ministry. Moses brings the people of God up to the border of the promised land. It is Joshua who takes them in. Moses is one paraclete. Joshua is another.

Consider Elijah. Elijah gives way to Elisha. Elisha appears to do greater works because he has the double measure of the Spirit. Elijah’s ministry gives way to the ministry of Elisha, and it seems as if Elisha’s ministry has the greater power and impact and significance, as if it were the higher, as if it were quote-unquote superior.

Consider John the Baptist and Jesus. John the Baptist gives way to Jesus. He says, you might recall earlier in the third chapter of John, I must decrease, he must increase. Jesus’ ministry is, of course, by far superior to that of John the Baptist. You understand what is going on as we see these matching pairs. We read in them the transition that is being worked out in the history of salvation. The old gives way to the new. The older, indicative of limited service, gives way to the new and to the unprecedented service that is rendered. The prior is limited in glory. The new comes with unprecedented and unparalleled glory.

So it is. seemingly, with Jesus and the Spirit. Jesus’ ministry in the flesh gives way to his ministry in the Spirit. And it is almost as if Jesus, in describing the advent of the Spirit, makes himself the lector in the service of the extraordinary and unique ministry that is about to burst upon earth. this speaking of the grand, eloquent humility of Christ himself. It does not mean that Jesus is any less God. It doesn’t mean that in the ministry of the Spirit we do not see the ministry of the risen, ascended Christ at work.

It is a method by which Christ, in his teaching of his disciples, will endeavor to convince them that what is coming for them is unprecedentedly glorious. For in the Spirit, the Church receives such comfort, such encouragement, such exhortation as was never dreamed possible, even by those in Old Testament times. In this spirit, the Church receives the day of greater works, the day of access and response in prayer, the day of the fulfillment of the new covenant. In other words, such a day, as Christ indicates, could not arrive unless he goes away.

It is very improper for us to mope about as if ours were a lesser and an inferior day in God’s dealings with his church in the world. It will not do for us to mope about as if ours were a lesser and inferior day in God’s dealings with his church in the world. This is no lesser day. This is no inferior day. This is the greatest day. You are privileged to live in the greatest period of human history.

According to God, in keeping with the program of salvation, you are living in the day of the Spirit. And because that is true, greater things are now being done than were done in the days Because that is true, you have access to God in a way that even our forefathers in the Old Testament did not have. And you have the promise of response from Him in a manner that they never received. Because this is true, you are living in the day of the reality of the new covenant.

You may want to think about what that means. Specifically, in light of Jeremiah 31, it means the wiping away of sin and the most intimate knowledge of God. Such is your privilege. Now, will you not celebrate that privilege and delight in it to the full.

Our Father, we are caught off guard by Jesus’ words often We may even think that his words trip up our theology and our doctrine. We know, however, O God, that the truth of the doctrine we have embraced stands, for our Christ is one who is equal with the Father and the Spirit, and surely this truth cannot be refuted for the Word of God upholded. At the same time, O Lord, we would marvel at the way in which Jesus presents the Spirit and his relationship to the Spirit. We would delight in the nuances of his language as he forces us to consider not only his humility and his service in the interest of the greater day, but also as he forces us and presses us to acknowledge the content and substance of that greater day as it is ministered to us in the spirit.

Therefore, Lord, be patient with us. We allow our spirits to be overcome by cares and concerns of this world, we are often distracted by sin that confuses us and upsets us, and sets us at a place that is far removed from you, seemingly. But Father, we pray that we would not mope about as if we were in a lesser day, and as if we were far removed from the glories, the true and real glories of the Kingdom. Instead, O God, may our faith be alive and vital, awake to these wonderful things, these superlative wonders of your kingdom and of your covenant that are ministered to us now in the Holy Spirit. Lord, help us lest we feel sorry for ourselves. Rather, O God, may we turn to you and rejoice in your work. and that to the full, even as you have revealed that work to us through Christ and his word. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 4, 1996
Past Flesh and Blood to the Spirit

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 4, 1996.

About this sermon

The series closes with Peter’s call to lay down his life for the sheep, an extension of Christ’s own continuing ministry, including its ministry of judgment. Throughout John 6, Christ has been pushing his hearers past bread, flesh, and blood, to the Spirit and to heaven itself.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

This morning we are reading from John’s Gospel, chapter 6, beginning with verse 53. Give your attention to God’s holy word. John 6, verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, that dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat the manna, and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him.

And he said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Because of our celebration of the Lord’s Supper this morning, rather than continuing our messages on Matthew chapter 2, we turn to John 6 for the purpose of completing our communion meditations on this passage. You may not have been keeping track of these messages during our observances of the Lord’s Supper.

For two years now, these messages have been focusing on John chapter 6. This morning I present to you the twelfth and last message in this series. We will be resuming our series on Matthew 2 next week, Lord willing. My point has been that John’s Gospel is pressing throughout its entirety toward chapter 21. You may want to have that chapter in front of you as we make our way through this message this morning, the last chapter in John’s Gospel. Specifically, my contention has been that John’s Gospel deliberately has chapter 21 in view and is pressing toward that conclusion, and specifically in that chapter, toward a consideration of the ongoing, continuing ministry of the Church. You will recall how this particular theme of the ongoing ministry of the Church comes out in this last chapter in John.

We move from Peter’s announcement at the beginning of that chapter, verse 3, where he says, “I am going a fishing,” to the risen Christ’s rebuke of Peter at the end of the chapter, verse 23, where Christ says, “If I want the beloved disciple, that is, John, to remain until I come, what is that to you?” In the process of moving from Peter’s announcement at the beginning to Christ’s rebuke at the end, we have indeed covered a great deal of ground that focuses upon the issue of the Church’s continuing ministry.

The chapter begins with Peter’s disorientation, his lack of focus, and his return to his former life, to things as they were. His inability, seemingly, to move forward beyond his life as a fisherman, despite the resurrection of Christ and even despite what Christ has said specifically to him on other occasions. But by the end of this chapter, Peter has been taught by the risen Christ himself about what it means to be a true shepherd for Christ’s flock. Peter will then enter a ministry over which Christ is absolutely sovereign, a ministry that, in Peter’s case, will be utterly costly, claiming his very life. There are several important points you should take away from this twenty-first chapter, as it focuses our attention on the Church’s continuing ministry. The first is quite startling.

The resurrection was not enough. The resurrection was not enough. Even after the resurrection, Peter is confused. He does not seem to know what he should do with himself. Even after a personal encounter with the risen Christ, as recorded in this chapter, Peter remains difficult, slow to understand, argumentative, and defensive.

Only through a continuing ministry from Jesus, one that constantly directs and rebukes, will Peter be able to stay on course and minister to and serve the Church of Christ. If even such a remarkable event as the resurrection, or even a personal meeting with Christ, fails to bring what is needed, what will bring what is needed?

Only Christ’s great gift to the Church, the Holy Spirit, whose presence especially in the latter chapters of John’s Gospel works to bring to mind what Jesus has said and done. What is needed in Peter’s case, as it is in the case of the Church, is the Spirit who continually exhorts, encourages, comforts, and rebukes through the Word.

That is, in and through the Scriptures. Consider the impact of this as John’s Gospel concludes. Here, in John chapter 1, Peter is subordinated. The most prominent of the disciples is himself subordinated to the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures, which is the foundation of his ministry for his Savior. You see the consequence. Does the impact of this register with you?

In John’s Gospel, the last word of Christ to Peter, imagined by some to be the first Pope, is a rebuke. The overall tone and character of this passage is to convince you that Peter, as great as he is, is flawed and failing, and subordinated, in regard to the ministry of the Church, to the ministry of the Holy Spirit speaking through the Word. This is a Protestant position, not a Roman Catholic position. The Gospel of John is a prototypical Protestant gospel. It is an anti-papal document.

In this chapter, the purpose of John’s Gospel speaks powerfully not only to church leaders who would follow in Peter’s footsteps or serve in an office within the Church, but also to the Church’s membership, to those whom Jesus describes in this chapter as his lambs and sheep.

In other words, it speaks to you. Specifically, it speaks to you about your Savior’s love for you, in that he calls you his lambs and his sheep. You therefore belong to him. His care for you is through those whom he has called to serve you in his likeness, as mediated through the power of the Spirit according to the Word. This is what you should expect as Christ’s flock. In fact, this is what you should demand. It is yours by Christ’s revelation and disposition.

The image of lambs and sheep used by Jesus in this chapter is not intended to suggest that you, as church members, are merely dumb beasts that without resistance are blithely led to the slaughter by incompetent, negligent, or even cruel shepherds, or by those who are particularly interested in their own welfare and their own reputations.

The ministry that you should expect and count upon is the one that you observe in Christ himself, the one that Christ is determined to bring to expression in Peter and in all others who would follow in his train. Much has been rightly said about the failure of church leaders in this century. As they have ventured off into the lap of liberalism, or into the carnival atmosphere of religious vaudeville, thus turning ministry into showmanship. But you must remember that you, as a congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as God’s people generally, must remember that you bear some responsibility for allowing, for tolerating, and even in some cases encouraging such ministry. The word of the living Christ comes to Peter so that he might know how to minister. That word stands in your midst so that you might recognize true ministry when you see it and insist upon it.

And finally, with regard to this twenty-first chapter in John, I want you to notice the centrality of Jesus Christ himself. For he is the source and the substance of true ministry. This is emphasized in the chapter by Christ’s sovereignty. He is the one who is sovereign in the events that transpire. He is the one who tells the disciples, after they have labored all night without catching any fish, to let their nets down on the other side of the boat. And, behold, they draw in a great number of fish. Jesus is the one who is sovereign, as the nets are drawn to the shore, and he already has breakfast prepared for the disciples. His sovereignty is evident, as he makes reference to the fact that those who come to him are, after all, his lambs and his sheep.

They belong to him, not to Peter, not to anyone else. There will be conformity on Peter’s part to Christ himself, as Christ makes plain to Peter: when you were young, you went where you wanted. When you were old, you will be taken where you do not want to go, and your arms will be stretched. John and the early Church understood exactly what that meant with regard to Peter. He would die a death that resembled Christ’s.

Thus the intention in the 21st chapter is not merely to speak about the continuing ministry of the Church, but to speak to us about that one who is the source and substance of that ministry, Jesus Christ. Those who would minister are merely entering into his ministry.

Thus it is always to his glory and credit and all of grace. If John’s gospel has been moving us toward its conclusion, which we find in this 21st chapter, is it not fair to say that all of the preceding material from chapters 1 through 20, in their own way, calculate to convince us of the very things that we find here at the conclusion? And if this is true, then what about chapter 6? Past messages in this series have already pointed out the many deliberate connections between chapter 21 and chapter 6. Without reviewing those obvious parallels for you this morning, let me simply say that chapter 6 in John powerfully proclaims Jesus Christ to be both the source and the substance of God’s eternal provision and our eternal enjoyment. And that we are beckoned by this sixth chapter of John to come and to feast upon him.

But how will we feast upon him? That becomes the question of John 6. In the continuing ministry of the Church, how will we feast upon him? How will Jesus Christ be ministered to his people in order to benefit them? How will he do this specifically if, being raised, he is also ascended to heaven? How will those who have office—those who are called to official ministry in the Church—serve Christ’s flock in this regard? How will Christ’s flock appropriate and appreciate this ministry?

John 6 begins, as you know, with the feeding of the 5,000, the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. But can Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of those with office who follow him operate at the level of bread and fish? For it to do so means that the bread and the fish will be but tokens of Christ’s ability to supply physical provision for the resolution of temporal earthly hunger. We cannot stop at bread and fish. For the multitudes and the disciples in this chapter have a greater hunger still—one which can be satisfied only by Him, that is Christ, and by the deepest participation in Him.

His flesh is true bread, and his blood is true drink, he says. You must move from the bread and the fish to the flesh and the blood. The movement in John 6 is deliberate. Hear them as you make that move in this chapter. These provisions of flesh and blood are meant then to set before us eternal delight in God Himself, as found in Christ.

But as with the bread and the fish, so also with the flesh and the blood. You cannot stop with the bread and the fish, and likewise you cannot stop with the flesh and the blood. Can Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of those who with office follow after him operate at the level of the flesh and the blood, simply and purely? For it to do so means that the flesh and the blood will be but tokens of Christ’s sacrificial death for a salvation undefined and unassured. Here will be a ministry, then, that tends to focus upon and end in the cross, and that only.

So Christ keeps pressing His argument. He presses on in His argument, just as He will in His ministry. Jesus’ ministry does not end short of resurrection and ascension into glory, thus neither will His argument. We must not stop with the flesh and the blood; we must go on to glory, or as Jesus says in verse 63, we must press on to the Spirit. The Spirit mediates to us through the Word, the flesh and blood of Christ, for our true and proper provision in our communion with Him.

Beyond the bread to the flesh and the blood, but then beyond the flesh and the blood to the Spirit with the Word for proper and true feasting upon the glorified living Christ. Not a mere earthly meal, not a sacerdotal partaking of mere flesh and blood, but a banquet in the Spirit by the Word for the full satisfaction and glory with the Savior who reigns in the realm of the Spirit, having come there through the piercing of His own flesh and the shedding of His own blood for the sins of His people. True ministry perseveres with the argument of Christ, as true ministry perseveres with the life of Christ until it reaches its appointed end in ascended glory. And true ministry labors in light of these things.

Christ’s true people desire nothing less. You do not want mere bread. You do not even want mere flesh and blood, even the flesh and blood of Christ. You do not want to stop at the cross. You want to go on to glory. Do you not? You hunger for the true things, for the ultimate things, for the eternal things. Even as you partake of this supper, you see past the bread and the cup to heaven. As we conclude this message, I want you to notice the parallel development in John 6 and John 21.

In John 21, neither the resurrection by itself nor a personal visit from Christ was sufficient to produce true ministry in Peter. Only the abiding presence of Christ in the Spirit through the Word could accomplish that. In John 6, neither the bread by itself nor the flesh and blood, merely conceived, could provide God’s eternal provision or our eternal enjoyment. Only Jesus Christ in the Spirit through the Word, only Jesus Christ glorified into the realm of the Spirit, in whom and with whom we have communion through His Word, can do so. Won’t you press on, for the sake of this ministry here, toward these higher matters?

Surely we cannot desert our Savior, but are compelled with Peter to confess: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. All that we need, O God, is wonderfully set before us in Your Word. And therefore, O Lord, we would not think of Your Word less than we ought. We glory in You, in Christ our Savior, in the ministry that He performs for us on our behalf. And we delight, O God, in the significance of the Word to us, that all servants, whether apostles or disciples, are subordinated to that Word, and we also are subordinated with them.

But Father, we ask that the Word would always prove to be to us no dead letter, but living and vital, even as the Spirit makes it alive so that it may richly and wonderfully communicate to us our union with our Savior in glory. And Father, may it please You to grant ministers of Your Word who understand these things and press on in regard to them. And at the same time, grant congregations who understand these things and insist upon them. This we ask through Christ, the one who even now ministers to us.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 4, 1996
Already, and Not Yet, in the Spirit

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 14, 1996.

About this sermon

John’s Gospel turns on a hinge, after which its description of the Spirit shifts in three ways. John 13-20 gives the pattern for the Christian ministry that follows. The Spirit makes a believer’s life both already fulfilled and not yet complete.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Tonight we are reading from John’s Gospel, Chapter 14. We are beginning at verse 8. This is John, Chapter 14, verse 8. Give your attention to God’s holy word. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. Believe in me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.

Otherwise, believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. That is, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him or know Him. but you know him because he abides in you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. After a little while, the world will behold me no more, but you will behold me. Because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, as I in you.

He who has my commandments and keeps them He it is who loves me, and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him.” Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, “‘Lord, what then has happened that you are going to disclose yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus answered and said to him, “‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You heard that I said to you, I go away and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here.”

As we abide in your Son, O God, we are taught that we abide in you, and thus it is that your word is precious to us. Truly, your word, which you gave to your Son to deliver, is precious to him. and we, confessing our love of him, must also confess our love for your word. Truly, O God, as your Son pursues your word in obedience, may we, by the power of the Son, pursue that same word, and may we obey even from our hearts. Help us, Lord, in our hearing that our hearing would be proper hearing, that is, obeying. We ask this through Christ. Amen. We have finished our messages on Jesus’ public proclamation of the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel, and we are now moving on to consider his promise of the Holy Spirit to his disciples.

This places us, therefore, in the second main section of John’s Gospel. specifically chapters 13 through 20 of this gospel, the section which Raymond Brown, the great John scholar, has described as the book of glory. The book of glory. Brown had called the previous section of this gospel chapters 1-12, excluding the prologue, the Book of Signs. For here, Jesus performed public ministry through signs and the Word, showing himself to be the incarnate God, that is, the Word made flesh, to his own people, only to be rejected. As verse 11 of the first chapter in John says, a text out of the prologue, to his own he came, but his own did not receive him.

And how well this analysis fits our previous messages about the Holy Spirit in John. For these earlier chapters included, you may recall, John the Baptist’s public witness about the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus. Jesus receives the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. He receives the Holy Spirit without measure, and he shall baptize in the Holy Spirit. These early chapters also contain Jesus’ public proclamation of the Spirit, by which Jesus challenges his hearers with the fact that the Spirit opens up for the people of God an entirely new order of existence, specifically a heavenly order, which is that true order, the order to which humanity was to be brought from the beginning.

By God’s grace, we must be born of the Spirit, says Jesus. Chapter 3, verse 5. By God’s grace, we must worship God, who is Spirit, in Spirit. Chapter 4, verse 24. By God’s grace, We must receive life from the Spirit through Christ’s word, John 6, verse 63. By God’s grace, we must become in ourselves fountains of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, John 7, verses 38 and 39.

The hour comes, and now is, when the new world, the ultimate, the glorious final and eternal world of the Spirit, has climactically and conclusively asserted itself upon the plane of this creation, and we belong to this new world. This is no occasional visit to a spigot. for some tap water. This is an immersion in a vast wonder water world of glory.

In the Book of Signs, the first part of John’s Gospel, Jesus, who came from that other world, the world of glory, and shall soon return to it, by his signs, points us in the direction of that world and to the effusions of God’s Spirit from it. But now, in the second half of the gospel, the book of glory so-called, the focus changes. We move from the general population and Jesus’ proclamation to that general proclamation, we move from that consideration and that audience to the close-knit fellowship of Jesus’ disciples and his specific service to them. From the wide audience and Jesus’ proclamation to that wide audience, now focusing upon the close-knit fellowship of Jesus’ own disciples, and specifically His service to and for them. Now look, if you will, at the beginning of this section of John’s Gospel, chapter 13, verse 1. There it is set out for us precisely what the intention is with regard to this so-called Book of Glory.

He will note that John tells us here, Jesus was aware, chapter 13, verse 1, Jesus was aware that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in this world, he now showed his love for them to the end. He loved them to the end, as the new American standard has it.

The declaration here by John with regard to Jesus is that the anticipated hour has indeed come, that hour in which Jesus would be lifted up to his Father and glorified so that he might give the Spirit to those who believe in him in beginning them as the children of God. Just as the prologue, chapter 1 verse 12, says that all those who did accept him or receive him, to them he gave the power or the authority as or to become the children of God.

It is now into this setting that Jesus renews his teaching about the Holy Spirit, shifting from proclamation to a general audience to promise to the specific audience of his disciples. Whereas in the first part of the Gospel, Jesus had preached the Spirit in a much Like missionary manner, he now promises the Spirit in the second part of this gospel in the enduring pastoral approach and his continuing presence. This pastoral approach, you must understand, fully comprehends the outworking of God’s purposes in his Son, and is defined by Let me say that again. The pastoral approach taken by Jesus here, in these latter chapters of John, fully comprehends the outworking of God’s purpose in his Son, and is defined by that purpose. That means that Jesus, in his pastoral approach to his disciples, assumes the completeness of his work.

He assumes those immediate events, those imminent events of his death, resurrection, and ascension. He therefore offers his care to his disciples in light of his upcoming suffering, and departure from this world. What interview is a time in which he will be no longer present physically?

But this being the case, Jesus’ intention is not simply to shepherd his little flock during that little time frame which he has remaining for him on this earth, but to shepherd them even given his departure, even given his physical absence from them. But of course, Jesus’ assumptions regarding the situation are even more far-reaching than that. For surely Jesus does not envision a ministry to his disciples alone. But as soon as we admit this, As soon as we admit that the ministry cannot be restricted to the disciples alone, we are forced to consider that ministry’s extension beyond even the generation of the disciples, to consider those served by Christ not restricted either to one place or one time.

In view, then, as Jesus ministers to his disciples, here is in view, truly, a ministry that is promised to Christ’s own through his death, resurrection, and ascension, through the entirety of the apostolic period, through the entirety of the Church Age to the end of the world. That is the extensiveness and the comprehensiveness of what is in gear. You read these chapters here in the later section of John’s Gospel, particularly as Jesus is intent to minister to his own, and you see a ministry set before you that is intended to endure to the close of the age.

Now, in this regard, it is good for us to return once more to chapter 13, verse 1. and to this theme verse for the Book of Glory. Now, if you have an NIV with you tonight, I ask you to note what the NIV has at this point, how the NIV translates this verse. The New International Version may well be missing the profundity of this text when it translates the latter part of it, quote, having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love, unquote. But in light of what we have just said, what we have just considered with regard to the extensiveness of the ministry of Christ in you.

Jesus means something far more comprehensive by that ministry, and John speaks of that comprehensiveness here at the beginning of this section. Jesus does indeed love his own to the full extent of his love, as the NIV says. But this way of stating the case invariably restricts the demonstration of his love by binding it to that little band of disciples gathered to him, and by binding it—that is, his love, or the demonstration of it—to the crucifixion specifically.

But that’s not what John means, even though it may well be included. What John actually means bursts such restrictions. He says that Jesus’ intention, by his ministering love, so expressed over the course of the final days of his earthly sojourn, was to show his love not just to his disciples, but to his own, that is, to his elect, not just to those who live proximate to the crucifixion, but to all the elect to the end of the age. Thus it is that the New American Standard and the King James translate properly.

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The word end used by John here, therefore, is deliberately ambiguous. It has reference, of course, to Jesus’ own end in his crucifixion, but it also powerfully preaches to us the reality of the coming end of the world and the fact that Jesus’ love is enduring even to that point. In other words, the service, the ministry, the pastoral care Jesus extends to his disciples before the crucifixion That is, before he rises from the dead in his body, speaks to us of the pastoral care, ministry, and service he extends to his elect before they rise from the dead in their physical bodies.

And it is in this context that Jesus then promises the Holy Spirit. Now, let me list for you here the verses in this section of John’s Gospel which speak of the Holy Spirit. We have read a couple of them this evening. We have John 14, verses 17 and 26. We have John 15, verse 26, and we have John 16, verse 13. you should add other references, those references that speak of the Comforter or the Paraclete. Again, these verses are John 14, 16, and 26, John 15, 26, and John 16, 7, some of these texts the same as those that speak specifically of Holy Spirit.

Now, we are not going to get into the exposition of these verses this evening. This is an introductory message to these texts, and we are providing here entrance into them, an overview for them, the context in which they arise. But now, in conclusion, let me offer to you a couple of observations which we should keep in mind as we make our way through these references.

For one thing, what Jesus has to say here has particular relevance to the whole matter of ministry. Who is truly the minister of this church? Now, I know what it says on the front of the board. And I know that because you believe that I am the minister, you pay me, and I like that. And the word prescribes that, so I don’t feel as if I’m robbing you. But you see, there is, in a very true sense, this reality, that Jesus Christ himself is the minister to you and for you.

There is a great deal that we could say with regard to this one point, and I say this particularly to seminarians, because invariably you seminarians will be deluged with books about ministry. And tragically, you will never be taken to these texts. And you will never be made, as it were, constrained by your professors, sadly, to consider the paradigm of the ministry of Christ out of texts like this.

Here it is. pattern and paradigm for ministry to the close of the age. Now we’re talking about obedience here. What does it mean to minister? But secondly, What Jesus has to say here about the Holy Spirit is paradigmatic for the Holy Spirit and his ministry for the entirety of the Church Age.

You’re saying to yourself, well, that’s hardly fair, we haven’t gotten into the epistles. If someone was of charismatic conviction, they would say, that’s hardly fair, we haven’t even gotten to Acts 2 yet. We haven’t gotten into 1 Corinthians 12-14. John is telling you that the power of the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit is found here. Here is the abiding, continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit. This sets the tone. Here are the limits.

This is what you must understand, regardless of what took place in Acts 2, regardless of what is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14. Jesus, as he faces death and as he faces his departure from this Church, lays before his Church not just what is essential and most important to the Holy Spirit’s ministry, but what is characteristic of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, what is typical of the Holy Spirit’s ministry. So if you want to zero in on what the Holy Spirit is all about in this age, I ask you, will you please concentrate on these chapters? Now, I’m not going to go further with that matter. But I do intend to speak about it further in time. As you can tell, I feel very strongly about it.

And I dare say that it is my own conviction that the Church is being racked and ruined by the assault of charismatic misinterpretation and misappropriation of Scripture. I have said this to you before, the gospel of John is the manifestly anti-charismatic gospel. It’s almost as if John is writing to answer the charismatics of his day. Well my, my, what a relevance the Bible has. It’s right up to date. Therefore, I ask you to compare what Jesus has to say in these texts with the claims of the Charismatic Movement.

Finally for tonight, as we look at these texts in the coming weeks, keep in mind the way in which they render double service. the way in which they render double service. On the one hand, they will minister to you the Holy Spirit, whose presence means that the long-awaited hour has arrived, it has come, and that the blessing in and through the Holy Spirit, the very blessings of eternity have become yours now.” Now, that’s the one side of service which the Holy Spirit renders for us in this age.

On the other hand, these same texts so marvelously deep and rich remind us that we are still living in this world. We are living in this world and in need of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, such ministry as is appropriate to our situation as we look toward the day when Christ will raise us up when Christ will raise us up in the resurrection. In other words, and here is the dynamic of the thing, the Holy Spirit in his person and in his ministry is the already in the not-yet of our lives. He, in his person and in his ministry, is the already of the not-yet of our Christian lives. In the coming weeks, hopefully we will learn more about Christ’s promise. of the Holy Spirit and his ministry to us, according to the witness of this sublime servant of our Savior.

Our Father, with the full extent of Christ’s ministry to us, may the Holy Spirit have his proper place before our eyes and in our estimation. And Lord, as you have worked upon us by the grace of the Spirit, may we receive the Holy Spirit truly and wonderfully in that way in which he has been presented to us in the Word. We ask, Father, therefore, that we would realize again the wonders of the Spirit as he brings to us the realities of the heavenly world, and these for our provision while we are pilgrims here sojourning unto the day when Jesus shall return. And in the power of the Spirit, O God, then, and by your grace, may we hear the word, keep the word, hear Christ’s commandments, and keep them. We pray this in Jesus’ name, and in the power of the Spirit. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 14, 1996
Faith in What Cannot Be Seen

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 7, 1996.

About this sermon

John’s Gospel speaks of the Spirit from the new birth of chapter 3 to the living water of chapter 7. Christ consistently teaches faith in what cannot be seen, and his words have nothing to do with what later became Pentecostalism. Life in the realm of the Spirit is more specific, and less spectacular, than that.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Tonight we are reading some passages that we have drawn from for our sermons for the last couple of messages on the subject of the Holy Spirit. We’re beginning in John chapter 3 this evening, the first five verses of that chapter. John chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to him by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water in the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Then, turning over to chapter 4, verse 21, Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father.

You worship that which you do not know. We worship that which we know. For salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers. God is a spirit. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Then chapter 6, beginning at verse 60, Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where he was before?

It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe. and who it was that would betray him. And he was saying, for this reason I said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” Then chapter 7, verses 37-39. Now, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Father, if we are determined to meditate on your word, we ask that your spirit might be very much operative in our meditation. Guide our thoughts, prepare us in our reflections upon your word. And Lord, we ask that as we have opportunity, even week by week, to consider your word in the company of your people, that we would be zealous to do so. Father, give us the right kind of disposition in our souls and hearts. And may we be hungry for those things of your kingdom. And in sitting ourselves at Jesus’ feet, may we hear his blessing read out upon us, that we have chosen the better part. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We have said that the witness to the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel divides into four categories, and I will review those with you this evening. First of all, there was John the Baptist’s testimony to the Holy Spirit in chapter one, and again at the end of chapter three. So first of all, John the Baptist’s testimony to the Holy Spirit. Secondly, we have observed that there is Jesus’ public proclamation of the Holy Spirit, that is, his proclamation to others besides his disciples.

And we have read the witness here from John’s gospel with regard to this category this evening in chapters 3, 4, 6, and 7. And thirdly, we have Jesus’ promise to the disciples of the Holy Spirit. He’s speaking then specifically to his own with regard to that promise that is theirs. And this comes to us in chapters 14 through 16 of this gospel.

Chapters that I might mention include Jesus’ comments about the paraclete, or the comforter, as that word has been interpreted. And finally, we have the scene in John chapter 20, where the risen Christ breathes on his disciples in the upper room, and he says to them, receive the Holy Spirit. So that’s the pattern that we have of things with regard to the Holy Spirit. at least in the explicit references to the Spirit throughout John’s Gospel. And our messages have been concentrating on the second category that we’ve outlined there, Jesus’ public proclamation of the Holy Spirit. And once more for you, we find the specific references in this regard to the Holy Spirit in chapter 3, verses 5, 6, and 8. chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, chapter 6, verse 63, and chapter 7, verses 38 and 39. Tonight we want to summarize what we have found in these passages before we press on to deal with Jesus’ very focused teaching to his disciples and his communication to them, his communication to those whom he specially loves. Now, one of the things you will notice about Jesus’ public proclamation is its continued relevance.

This is very important for me to say, because it has been suggested—no, it has even been charged—that the ministry of this pulpit is irrelevant. In fact, it majors in irrelevance. I want you to understand that it’s not that this pulpit majors in irrelevance. It’s that there is another angle of vision on relevance, or another approach to what constitutes relevance in the perspective of this pulpit.

We can say the same thing about application. There have been many discussions in this church about the subject of application, and I think that if you concentrate, or if you think hard on the messages that are delivered, you will find that, yes, there is application, but it is not application as you might ordinarily expect, or as you have been accustomed to receiving.

It is not anecdotal, for instance. It is not a review of evangelical pagiography. That’s hero stories. It doesn’t concentrate on tales invented, what has been called evangelical mythology, where you have no ability to validate the story. In fact, you become very suspect of this kind of illustration and application because the only source of it can be the person who is most directly involved. And in thinking about the application or the story or the anecdote, you wonder how in the world did this get out without this individual specifically telling it. And if he’s going around telling these sorts of things, it seems then that it’s a very personalized a very self-centered kind of ministry. Do you realize that the only personal reference that Calvin makes to his own conversion is a very short section in the introduction to his commentary on the Psalms? In all that he wrote, Calvin was not anecdotal. in his approach to application and illustration, in his approach to the subject of relevance.

Now, I want you to notice now, in these public declarations by Jesus of the Holy Spirit, specifically the relevance of what Jesus has to say. It is as if his proclamation specifically continues to address the religious and even widely, broadly considered Christian world. His comments continue to address the religious and even widely, that is, broadly considered Christian world. The great difficulties for such a world persistently are what it knows for certain and what it sees, what it observes.

Now, think of each of these four passages in these regards. In John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus and self-assuredly declares, Rabbi, we know. This is a comment of the religious establishment. Rabbi, we know. Now, that’s not a friendly address by Nicodemus to Jesus. I hope you realize that. This is a challenge. We know. And if, Jesus, you’re to have credence with us, you’re going to have to sit in with our we know.

The Samaritan woman in John 4. Despite the fact that she is suggesting here a question about the right place to worship, Is it Gerizim or Jerusalem? Really, this woman has no doubt about the right place to worship. In other words, she’s very self-assured about the truth. What can Jesus tell her?

In John 6, the Jews in Capernaum at the synagogue know Jesus’ comments about eating his flesh and drinking his blood cannot be true. And in John chapter 7, Jesus’ brothers at the beginning, and later on the multitudes in that chapter, know that whether or not Jesus be the Messiah, he must honor the established protocol and schedule of the prescribed feasts, because that’s what real religion is.

Now we can go through these same passages once more, noting the way in which they deal with the religious world’s dependence upon sight. See? The religious world depends upon its self-assured knowledge, and the religious world depends upon sight. Although Nicodemus is being quite facetious in his remarks about signs, those that have in verse 2 of that third chapter, his religion operates at the level of the observed and at the level of sight, things, scenes, specifically at the level of what is plain and obvious and apparent.

He mocks whatever forces him past those certainties of his sight. That’s the force, you see, of his retort to Jesus after Jesus makes his comment to him about being born again, born from above, in verse 3. In verse 4, Nicodemus goes on to say, How can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus is pushing him past the plain and the obvious. past even the plane of the possible. A Samaritan woman in John 4 thinks in terms of the settled, observable forms of worship with which she is accustomed, with which she is comfortable.

The crowds in Capernaum in John 6 chase physical breath. Jesus points that out to them. that is the bread of this world. Jesus’ brothers and the multitudes in John 7, at the Feast of Tabernacles, cannot envision the loss of the Feast, even in fulfillment of that Feast, because their piety and their devotion depend upon it. that in Jesus’ comments about the Holy Spirit, in his public proclamation about the Holy Spirit, there is this continuing relevance to what he has to say. And that’s specifically to the religiously interested.

What we note is that these attitudes expressed by a Jewish leader, a Samaritan adulteress, a congregation at a synagogue, a gathering at a celebration for a Jewish high holiday, are not far removed from the attitudes that we encounter in the religious world and in the broad church of our own time. And just as central as is the Holy Spirit to Christ’s proclamation in these various contexts that we find here in John 3 through John 7, so that Holy Spirit is central to the Church’s ongoing proclamation as she meets the baffling contradictions and denials, even the open hostilities, from the religious world. a world inclusive, frighteningly, of so much of the Church of our day.

I would also add, compounding then the relevance of what we find here in this section, that there is absolutely nothing in these public statements by Jesus on the Holy Spirit that he even vaguely suggests or anticipates the submersion of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit under current convictions of Pentecostalism. Jesus’ statements have nothing to do with the raw emotionalism and subjectivism of modern Pentecostalism. the kind of I-know-it’s-true-because-I-feel-it, I-know-it’s-true-because-I’ve-experienced-it-and-you-cannot-deny-my-experience sort of religion. In fact, modern Pentecostalism, with all of its dependence upon personal experience, with all of its dependence upon signs and wonders, and its own, I know, confidence is as much the target of Jesus’ proclamation of the Holy Spirit in this section as the wide religious community. As we have already said in another context, John’s gospel is manifestly the anti-charismatic gospel. that what then is at the heart of Jesus’ public proclamation of the Holy Spirit? Admittedly, it stands contrary to what is known presumptuously, assumed presumptuously. Admittedly, it stands contrary to what is seen, having a visitation of the Spirit back there of some sort.

Sounds like speaking in tones. What does Jesus positively proclaim about the Holy Spirit? Jesus’ comments are positive announcements about the—could I have quiet, please? I would appreciate it if there would be quiet back there. Jesus comments our positive announcements about the atmosphere, the environment, and the historical realities of God’s work in Christ himself. That environment and that atmosphere now made real through what God himself has done. and the realities of that environment and atmosphere made possible in the Holy Spirit utterly impossible apart from him. In John 3, Jesus declares the fact that those that would be resident in the kingdom of God must be born again. Please hear what Jesus says at this point.

They must be born of and from the region above. The environment and the atmosphere of the region above is, in fact, the context of their life. It is the origin of their life. He states explicitly, that this birth is by and through the Spirit. It is not irrespective of the sacrament of the Church, but it transcends that sacrament in that the sacrament itself must point to this reality. So Jesus says that birth is by water and the Spirit. Natural life, then, the environment and plane of natural life, the reality that pertains to it, is not adequate,” says Jesus.

Specifically, in the face of a Jew, we presume, believes that very thing, that he has found that which is adequate. In fact, he wants more of it. We are speaking here, then, about an environment, an atmosphere made accessible by Christ’s work that is beyond the limits of human predictability and achievement. It is the ultimate reality. It is the realm of the spirit for which man was originally destined, even from the beginning. This realm is connected with what God is intending. to reveal with regard to himself.

As Jesus tells the woman at the well, God is Spirit, because he is now understood in terms of the realm of the Spirit, which is being opened up now for those who truly believe. Such worship as the Father seeks is fully cognizant of the transcendent glories that now define its orientation. The worship that is in view in John 4, as Jesus speaks to the woman at the well. is the worship that belongs particularly and peculiarly to the realm of the Spirit, this realm now being opened up by the work of Christ and the ministry of the Spirit himself, who comes from heaven. There can be no hiding The pretensions of localized worship be it even in Gerizim, or better still, in Jerusalem, in the day of the Spirit.

Nor can there be dirtings on promises of provision for this life, as was the case in John 6, where you have people who are so focused upon worldly bread, earthly bread, that they cannot see the true intention of Christ. Always, then, those who worship through Jesus Christ are forced to higher ground. It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing, not even the flesh of Christ, if it is made an endpoint. If it is made an endpoint. Jesus comments about the spirit being life, the flesh prophet nothing, follow after his comments to the Jews that they must eat his flesh. You see what he does? He keeps upping the ante. You can’t even stop at his flesh. You’ve got to go beyond. You cannot make his flesh and end in itself, and that is exactly what Rome does.

And what about religious celebration, the occasion for religious spectacle? That’s what it becomes, or the keeping of tradition. Jesus calls his own to pass through the religious festival, to always live in terms of the truth to which the festival, the religious observance, points. And that won’t be some sort of earthly resolve. That will be a heavenly, heavenly resolve.

Jesus himself claims to be the center and the meaning of the festival of tabernacles in John 7. He claims that the coming ministry of the Holy Spirit has the supreme purpose to communicate the life that is found nowhere else but in him. Jesus’ message, his public proclamation of the Holy Spirit is nothing short of striking. It is actually revolutionary. Even the Jews had heard nothing like this. Remember the soldiers that come back and report to the Sanhedrin? Never a man spoke as this man speaks. The audiences were in many cases just simply dumbfounded by what he was saying.

He was forcing them beyond the limits of what they had considered, beyond the horizons that they had observed in their religious programs and practices, in their piety, in their ethics, in their observations of the law. in their understanding and consideration of that law.

Jesus then, in his public proclamation, as the spirit of Jesus does presently, forces us beyond the intellectualism, the externalism, the formalism, the regionalism, the sacramentalism, the subjectivism, to the heart and soul of true biblical religion, which is yours if you will hear him.

And I trust you do. our God, we may find ourselves those Jesus addressments. Lord, we would pray for your patience with us, that we would not stop with the limitations of our minds or the limitation of our limitations of the region in which we live or the practices and traditions with which we have been raised. That we would not stop at the experiences that we have had, making our subjective self the center of all religious definitions. Rather, O God, we would be called up before you and your word.

Help us, Lord. Help us in this life, in the spirit which you have given us. We are so foolish. We turn again so quickly to the weak and beggarly elements of this world. Bless us, O God, that the full and gracious liberty that his hours in the Spirit might be appreciated fully by us.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 7, 1996
History of the OPC IV: Finale

This recording is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison archive, part of the “Lectures” series, delivered January 1, 1996.

About this sermon

Christ’s own words to Pilate, ‘my kingdom is not of this world,’ frame the OPC’s own heavenly-mindedness as it entered the 1940s, still finding its identity against the old-school Presbyterian establishment. Geerhardus Vos’s own theology, unique and largely ignored in his lifetime, is read as the resource the young denomination did not yet know how much it needed. The series closes where it began: with a kingdom not measured by earthly success.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

And as well, we thank you and praise you for his passive obedience as well. We thank you that because of his active and passive obedience, there is indeed hope, hope of heaven, hope of eternity, hope of being with you throughout all eternity, that the prayer of Christ indeed will in time be answered, that where he is, we might be, that we might share his glory. And we look forward to that time, and with John of old we would cry, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. But while time goes on, while that day that only you know and have sat is not yet, we would pray that as well we might, recognizing our position in Christ, seek to be the servants that you would have us to be. to this needy world in which you have placed us and called us. We pray in Jesus name. The text that I have chosen for the beginning of this presentation is John chapter 18 verse 36.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. This is the toughest lecture. I realize that the ranks have thinned a bit and I expect that in part that’s because a number of the people that have left realized that they couldn’t stay awake after lunch. So I will not be merciless. By that I mean By that I don’t mean I’ll be shorter. I don’t mean I’ll be shorter, but by that I mean if I see you nodding off, I will not point at you and say something.

Now I concluded the last lecture with a provocative statement, and I realized that. I said the OPC exists for the purpose of recovering in the consciousness of Christ’s church the truth about the other world, and that the OPC’s meaning and mission are intrinsically tied to this issue. And I acknowledge that these statements have the potential of mystifying and even possibly angering some people. Therefore, in this final presentation, I want to fill out these statements a bit and then make some concluding remarks to you.

But before I get into the substance of the lecture, let me make some comments about Orthodox Presbyterian Church distinctiveness. On the one hand, if she is as I have described her, the OPC is a distinctively Orthodox and Calvinistic Presbyterian body which has become what I have called a Presbyterian anomaly. whose very existence challenges the church-culture alliance that pervades the church’s self-understanding, not only in America, but typically throughout the world. So yes, there is a distinctiveness to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. On the other hand, the OPC is not unique at all. when held up to the biblical definition of the church. Every church is to be defined by Hebrews 13 verse 14. Here we have no continuing city.

The whole church is to be able to confess in the words of Philippians 3.20 that our citizenship is in heaven. And every Christian must follow the Savior who confessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate when he said, My kingdom is not of this world.

Such heavenly mindedness as true Christianity has always acknowledged. does not ruin you for life in the world. Rather, as our God in glory knows, such heavenly mindedness provides the only appropriate and adequate place to stand to be of genuine service in the world. The Son of God, who came from heaven and returned to heaven, had heaven on his mind as he performed his ministry in the world. Obviously, Jesus Christ’s heavenly-mindedness did not ruin him for life in this world.

His true Church must follow him. And it is my judgment that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, by her existence, not necessarily by her self-understanding, by the providence and by the mercy of God, has been an eloquent and forceful encouragement for the Church of Jesus Christ as a whole to do just this. to live in keeping with the heavenly mindedness that is observed in Christ and prescribed in the Word.

In December 1927, J. Gresham Machen said he could not agree with those Presbyterians who had no zeal to see the Presbyterian Church extended through the length and breadth of the world. Machen counted himself among those who hold the faith of the Presbyterian Church, the great Reformed faith that is set forth in the Westminster Confession, to be true. And holding it to be true, we hold that it is intended for the whole world. But what was the faith of the Presbyterian Church? The great Reformed faith set forth in the Westminster Confession.

Caspar Whistler Hodge, Machen’s colleague at Princeton Theological Seminary and grandson to Charles Hodge, summarized for himself and also for Machen, I judge the Reformed faith, when he wrote these words. Here was that theology that teaches and upholds the majesty and sovereignty of Almighty God, the total inability of fallen man to save himself, and that the whole of salvation is to be ascribed to the power and grace of God. This is simply the pure and consistent form of evangelicalism, which says, with Paul, By grace have ye been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is God’s gift.” This generic Calvinism has been taught under the specific form of covenant theology, so richly developed in the Westminster Confession and grounded in the scripture statement, I will be your God and ye shall be my people. That from Casper Wister Hodge.

But were there significant differences between this transient definition and what the Reformed faith for so many had become? And just as crucial, if not more so, Were there significant differences between this definition and what the Reformed faith ought to be? Was the Reformed faith here in the 20th century much in need of a retooling for the purpose of bringing out more clearly the essential features of its first impress? Such questions as these raise further questions.

Was it possible, for instance, for some to grab hold of Hodge’s use of the word evangelical, I’m sure you noticed it, and massage that word in such a way so as to compromise the strength and distinctiveness of the Reformed faith? Was that possible? Is that conceivable? But further, was it possible that Hodge’s definition, as fine as it is, was not adequate and would have to be subjected to a radical reevaluation because of the nature of those events that were transpiring at the end of the last century, the beginning of this century, specifically as they focused upon the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America?

And if such a re-evaluation was necessary, could the Hodges and the Machens of the Church remain the same in such a re-evaluation? Or would they themselves have to change in order to be true to the genius of the Reformed faith? These crucial questions would be answered in J. Gresham Machen during the remaining years of his life from 1927 to its conclusion. And they would also be answered by the history of that body that has been formed out of his efforts.

To begin with, There were many problems in the conservative Presbyterianism represented by Princeton theological seminaries. Despite the strong stand for doctrine as such, despite the strong stand for the Westminster standards, Despite the high spiritual view of the Church promoted at Princeton, and the heavy emphasis upon Christian nurture and the ordinary means of grace, the Princeton theology and the so-called old-school Presbyterianism were not without their difficulties. The Princeton theology had an over-inflated view of the human intellect, and an undervalued view of history.

In fact, that is what got Charles Hodge in trouble with the Mercerburg theology boys, with Philip Schaff and with John Nevin. As strange as it may sound, Charles Hodge got in over his head, and he was not able to maintain his course because it was shown in the arguments with the Mercersburg boys that he did not know his church history as he should.

It is also true that the Princeton theology had been over-accommodating to the common-sense philosophy of the Scottish realists. I think we all are aware of that problem. The Princeton theology had been somewhat accommodating to certain theological innovations that rose out of the New England theology. Some people question as to whether Samuel Miller should have pursued peace with the New England theology at the point he did in 1817, for instance. Furthermore, as those trained at Westminster Seminary acknowledge, the Princeton theology had a faulty apologetic.

He had a certain weakness for some forms of piety. Charles Hodge declared that all children dying in infancy were indisputably saved, taking exception to the Westminster standards. Moreover, despite Hodge’s dissent, the old school Presbyterians showed certain new-school habits of mind by allowing post-Civil War political pressures to override their theological convictions. And the stalwart B.B. Warfield contributed to the rise of modern evangelicalism by making the Reformed faith merely the most consistent expression of a broader evangelical theology, and by exalting the individual believer above the corporate character of the people of God. His book, The Plan of Salvation, is quite excellent, but as you read it, you will note that fault.

In addition, If all this wasn’t bad enough, the charge has been more recently made, voiced by a number of alumni who had lived through the experience, that the faculty at Princeton, at the turn of the century and in the years, the early years of this century, while personally devoted to a rigorous Calvinism, for whatever reason, did not communicate that devotion in the classroom. They wrote it, but apparently, according to the testimony of many, they did not teach it rigorously in the classroom. Now, what was happening, I cannot say at this point. Possibly it had something to do with the Briggs case in the 1890s. The fact that the popularity of Princeton men and Princeton theology had suffered as a consequence of that.

But by and large, the faculty at Princeton had retrenched, at least in the classroom, away from an aggressive, vigorous, militant Calvinism to the more comfortable position of being the spokesman for a supernatural Christianity over against the outrage of liberalism.

Now, think about the education of J. Greshamation. He goes to Princeton in 1901. He then is educated in a gentleman’s Presbyterianism. at Princeton during this time. The mood is fairly uniform, and Machen’s experience at Princeton fits in well with the mold. But there was one teacher at Princeton during those days who didn’t fit.

He was an alien. He was Dutch. He came from the Christian Reformed Church. He was a man in whom nations seemed to have only relative interests. There are not many comments about him in his letters to his mother, for instance. The man I have in mind is Gerhardus Voss. Voss was an odd person, extremely so.

He was a lonely man as well, an eccentric, on campus. He was a man more often mocked by his students than listened to, and he was generally ignored. I think that all of you who know the halls of academia well recognized the type. And this kind of an individual has probably been the object of your pranks and your caustic remarks as well. As one alumni put it, Voss was a klutz. whose words were so buried beneath his Dutch accent, you couldn’t understand it.

But it was Vos, who more than anyone else, inconspicuous as he was, it was Vos who would force the issue for a proper assessment of the Reformed faith and build towards its further progress. Now why do I say this? Vos was grabbed hold of by the distinguishing feature of Reformed theology, the doctrine of the covenant, and he would not let it go.

And Vos it was who, in pressing the case for the primacy, for consideration of the covenant, pulled Reformed theology back to its roots and away from the primacy of the intellect, the primacy of the mind, which now was fairly much entrenched in Princeton thinking.

The covenantal character of God’s revelation, Vos Saw, establishes the primacy not of the intellect, but of the historical category. In view, then, is the historical unveiling of God’s purpose in covenantal form, mind and evaluation, mind and even definition subordinate to that sovereign activity of God in history. You must lead with the primal biblical category. And the covenant, the reformed doctrine of the covenant, forces you to that conclusion. In other words, the primacy of the act of God, the primacy of the mighty acts of God.

Voss’s position therefore powerfully challenged the old school Presbyterian position that the reformed faith must refute the primacy of the intellect, as it was held among liberals and others, with its own appeal to the primacy of the intellect. You see the problem that was being addressed. we will confront the liberal’s appeal to the primacy of the intellect with our own appeal to the primacy of the intellect. The Reformed faith instead, said Voss, saw Voss, refutes the primacy of the intellect with the primacy of revelation. and the unfolding story of salvation, the Christian story, as Cornelius Van Til called it. But furthermore, Vos would press his case to the very heart of the He was not going to allow the discussion to live at the level of the mere externals of the covenant itself, the arrangement aspects of the covenant, the legal aspects of the covenant, the documented aspects of the covenant.

He was going to go to the very heart of the matter. Now, in order to illustrate this, let me get real homey here. Say your wife, you men, asks you, as she is bound to do, honey, do you love me? And you say, well, of course I do. And you show her your marriage certificate. Are you with me here? You dare not define covenant by appeal merely to the legal aspects of the arrangement. You can’t do that.

Vos saw that you have to press to the very heart of the matter. And in this, he was standing with Calvin, he was standing with the Westminster Divines, He was standing with historic Presbyterianism in its best form. At the center of biblical interest is the believer’s possession of God and God’s possession of the believer. Do you understand what’s going on in the first question and answer of the Catechism? You see it, right? It’s the covenant right there.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. What does it mean to glorify God? Do you realize that the first instance for the use of the word glory in Scripture doesn’t have to do with God at all? It has to do with Laban, Genesis 31. sons of Laban were concerned that Jacob would steal their father’s glory. What do they mean?

His possession, his wealth. To glorify God means to demonstrate that you are his possession. That’s what it means. But you see then how the catechism answer reverses it. And to enjoy him forever. Not only are we God’s possession, but God gives himself to us to be our possession. That’s it. If you then are sons, you are heirs, joint heirs with Christ, heirs of God. You inherit Him. That’s it. This, Voss said, is only in its perfect realization, of course, found in the higher heavenly eternal world.

It was this which was Adam’s hope in the garden even before sin—to have God and to be in God’s possession. And it is now, in our circumstance, the gift which God presently gives us in Christ, the down payment of which we have received in his Holy Spirit. In its already accomplished truth in Jesus Christ, this becomes the ground, the motivation, the empowerment for all of our behavior. Our ethics flow from this.

Ross’s contention was, here is the Reformed faith’s fundamental principle and promise of progress. And here is the proper biblical response to all foolhardy worldliness, all millennial fantasies. Here is the proper appropriate response that would also prove to be an appropriate antidote to the vanities of rising nationalism and to the comforts of a gentleman’s Presbyterianism.

It would not be until the twenties that a group, a very small group of students in the interests of the heart of Calvinism, would begin to move toward Voss. You know their names. Cornelius Van Til, Ned B. Stonehouse, and John Murray. And it would be these men, together with an earlier devoted student of Voss, R.B. Kuyper, under whom Machen himself, after the founding of Westminster Seminary in 1929, an institution that included these gentlemen, would begin his own re-education. His own re-education.

From them he would learn that the Reformed faith was far more than a gentleman’s Presbyterianism, that Presbyterianism in which he had been raised and trained. In fact, it was far different from even many of its more conservative expressions among American Presbyterians. Now, the struggle in which these matters were worked out struggle in which these matters were worked out during Machen’s lifetime was with American Presbyterian fundamentalists. At the end of his life, Machen, despite the presence of fundamentalists in the newly formed Church, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Despite the presence of fundamentalists with him, Machen emphatically distanced himself from fundamentals. He stated his case to James E. Bennett, a New York Presbyterian fundamentalist lawyer. Machen, in correspondence with this man, said, I, for my part, am not a fundamentalist at all, but a Presbyterian.

He went further, saying he found no real commitment to the Westminster standards among the fundamentalists. He found no real proper biblical view of office. He found a tendency towards millennial extremism and towards the heresies of dispensationalism. And he also found an unbiblical legalism that violated the canons of Christian liberty.

But beneath these very pointed objections was the rabid nationalism that for all the pre-millennial pessimism of the fundamentalists about this world was very much alive in them. As George Marsden has pointed out, American Presbyterian fundamentalism was as much alive with the activist, nationalist, crusading spirit as was American Presbyterian liberalism. After the Third General Assembly, June 1 through 4, 1937, the Fundamentalists would leave the New Church in order to start their own, the Bible Presbyterian Synod.

They would be led by Carl McIntyre, J. Oliver Buswell, Al McRae, and H. McAllister Griffiths, all men who were convinced that the OPC had come under an un-American influence. At the root of that concern was not just the figures of Kuyper, Stonehouse, Van Til and Murray, but Gerhardtus Voss. Stonehouse and Murray, as well as Kuyper, were arguing their case against the premillennial dispensationalism abroad in the church by an appeal to Voss. The argument was over his influence and the direction he was proposing.

These then MacIntyre, Buswell, McCrae, Griffiths, and others withdrew in the interests of their version and vision for American Presbyterians. They were unable to see the value and the glory of the New Church in transcending the nationalism and worldliness that had become so much a part of the American Presbyterian scene. Now, it would be in the 1940s, after Machen’s death, that the OPC would face two further challenges that confirmed its identity. The first was with a Presbyterian elitism a residual mainline Presbyterianism that had survived in many moneyed families, including Machen’s own, and in certain individuals who aspired to the cultural standing and influence of the mainline Presbyterian Church.

The chief figure representing the elitist position was Edwin H. Ryan. Ryan wrote an excellent book, back there on the table, entitled The Presbyterian Conflict. But at the same time, he dreamt of the OPC as a large Presbyterian church with the cultural clout of the mainline church.

He wanted a church that would recapture a place of power and usefulness in the life of America. Those are his words. He made two major efforts in the 1940s to realize his goal. In 1941, he masterminded at the 8th General Assembly of the OPC, the organization of the so-called Committee of Nine. At the next assembly, this committee expressed its commitment to a program which saw the OPC as a church to meet the needs of this generation, have an increasing area of influence, and make a greater impact on life today.

But the assembly rejected the committee’s proposals. and the committee was abandoned. Ryan next concentrated his energies on the Christian University Project, an effort by Presbyterian and Reformed people to develop a distinctively Calvinistic university in this country. But Ryan, who served the University Association as General Secretary, was determined to mold the university along elitist lines. And when it became suspected that he was misusing association funds to achieve his goal, he was fired. This happened in the fall of 1946. In the spring of the following year, he left the OPC in disgrace. and return to the PCUSA and to the elitism of that church which he had never actually forsaken.

The other challenge the OPC would face in the forties that would confirm the church’s identity as a vigorously reformed church, driven at root by a transcendent interest, was from the rising tide of the New Evangelicalism. Now, getting a handle on the neo-evangelical movement is not an easy matter, but let me offer to you a few suggestions. Neo-evangelicalism is a reaction to fundamentalism, wishing to be free from the counterproductive aspects of fundamentalism’s reputation, in the interest of better access to and acceptance in American culture. Neo-evangelicalism is fundamentalism made respectable.

What it craves is an equal footing, a place of an equal within American society. I cite as an illustration of this the recent statement by Ralph Reed, the leader, the executive director of the Christian Coalition. He captured the sentiment of the neo-evangelical movement well, applying it to his own effort, when he recently said that the coalition had become a significant force in American politics. Quote, we have gained what we have always sought, a place at the table. Unquote. That’s a bit short-sighted. But such adolescent short-sightedness as this has become the calling card of neo-evangelicalism.

Such an attitude and disposition was sufficiently attracted to many in the OPC in the 1940s for them to make great concessions to it. This is what lay at root in the famous Clark-VanPhil debate. There were many important and profoundly complex doctrinal issues involved in that debate. Issues such as the free offer of the gospel, the fiducial aspect of faith, and most importantly, the incomprehensibility of God. All of these were on the table.

Some in the OPC who had no real understanding of the theological issues, in fact, they would have been opposed to Clark if they had rightly grasped what he was saying, nevertheless gravitated toward him because he represented to them a means by which they could re-enter American culture and church life. That was the overriding concern.

The Church was not to be a backwater movement. It was to have the position of prominence in order to make an impact upon the society and the culture. Clark became a figurehead in this movement for many who couldn’t have cared less about the particulars of his position concerning the incomprehensibility of God. Clark was ordained to the OPC ministry in 1944, and his ordination survived an appeal process, even to the General Assembly. So that stood. Clark was ordained. He was a minister in the OPC.

On many accounts of what went wrong, the Clark supporters felt that they had the support necessary in order to win the election. One account was that Pastor Dean Adair, a Clark supporter, was so distressed by the manners of the Clark party that he switched his vote at the last minute. Others cite the fact that ruling elder Cyrus Ferguson from Kirkwood, Pennsylvania, flew out to the General Assembly meeting at Cedar Grove, Wisconsin, and arrived just in time to cast his vote. At any rate, the Clark Party lost in its bid to gain control of the Foreign Missions Committee, and they lost by one vote. By the next assembly, Clark, and the majority of his supporters had left the Church. A number of them went back into mainline Presbyterianism. The common element in each of these struggles, be it with the Fundamentalists in the 30s or the Elitists or the Neo-Evangelicals in the 40s, is the desire of these groups to offer the OP a way back into the culture, back into a national identity.

In God’s providence, the OPC has not as yet taken the bait. To this day, the OPC remains a Reformed and Presbyterian church without a cultural bridge That is, without a means back into the American mainstream. The question was asked to me, why is the OPC small? Why doesn’t the OPC grow at a faster rate? Why aren’t there more people in the OPC? Let me tell you something. Given the OPC’s identity, it is amazing that there is anybody in the OPC. Each one of you is a testimony to the grace of God.

Humanly speaking, this church should not exist. It should not have survived. It should not be here. It is the absence of just such a cultural bridge that accounts in some measure for the smallness of the denomination. Do you realize what happens? People walk into your churches and they perceive, they can’t articulate it, they can’t put it down in writing, they can’t state it even. Something isn’t right. They sense it. There is something here with which they cannot identify.

And I might add that it is the absence of just this cultural bridge that provides the reason for the breakdown of union talks with other Presbyterian bodies. This is it. It really isn’t those popular issues that were raised. Well, you know, the OPCs don’t really believe in evangelism, and they’re a bunch of theological nitpickers, so we don’t want to get together with them. Smokescreen.

The real reason for the breakdown in the Union talks with other Presbyterian bodies. is right here. The OPC lacks the cultural bridge. The 1975 attempt at union with the former Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod collapsed because the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod was the child of fundamentalism and maintained a cultural vision that could not accept OPC disenfranchisement. Along similar lines, the O.P.’ ‘s attempts at union with the P.C.A. in the eighties collapsed. Much at issue here, although never isolated in the discussion, were the P.C.A.’ ‘s cultural aspirations.

You don’t talk about these things. It’s the ethos of the Church. These aspirations are very much at the center of the PCA’s identity and rise out of an evangelical social vision of which a large, influential, if not dominant, national church is an indispensable part. That is the PCA’s identity. That is what they are about. My thesis has been Historically, the OPC has not shared this vision. It cannot agree with it. The OPC, as was the case with J. Gresham Machen himself, has been forced to a higher vision.

She with the patriarchs is forced to desire a better country that is a heavenly one. She has been stamped with an other worldliness that demands further development and progress in her members as to how they, rather than seeking to regain the world they lost, might be of service to their Lord in this world.

Such service will insist upon the priority of the heavenly consciousness in the pursuit of any task. Such consciousness the fruit of our union with Christ in keeping with the word. This one who even now is in heaven. Beginning here We always begin with and by grace are always in a position of laboring out of what we have not out of what we don’t have. Such labor is progressively informed by God’s gracious provision through his word for expression in the worship of the church in the means of grace in the marks of the church in the ministry and mission of the people of God in the care and counseling of others in the mutual life with fellow believers.

Think of it. A consciousness that rises above thoughts about securities and rewards in this world. You want to talk about freedom, friends? Let’s talk about freedom. a consciousness that rises above thoughts about security and rewards in this world, that is not held captive by the evening news, or by the political prospects of this party or that, or when it comes to ministry, the prospect of a large, successful enterprise. with statistics you can boast about. Think of it, a consciousness that so stands in the liberty of the sons of God, so confident of God as the true and only reward for God’s people, of heaven as the true and only destination for those who here have no continuing city, that it enables us to be of greatest help to the multitude of churches in this land and in the world. We encouraging them with all humility to look above to the Lord, the Savior of the ends of the earth.

Thank you. Take a few minutes for a question. John Frayman in his evangelical reunion suggests that the default position I’m not sure. I know he mentioned John frame and he mentioned his book on the evangelical reunion. Yeah. Okay. Well I’m not sure that I can defend all of the argumentation that. went into the JNR situation from the side of those who were opposed to joining and receiving, for instance.

As far as the ecumenical obligation that is on us, you see, my position is that you always view the imperative in light of the indicative. I mean, okay, what would I say? All right, any command given us by God out of his word must flow from the accomplishment which God himself has worked. And that’s Calvinism, really. Okay, so any obligation that I have must flow from the already accomplished work of God. You’re with me, all right? You understand that much, right?

But if you take that and you apply that to the whole matter of ecumenicity, for instance, you cannot proceed in ecumenicity if you have already allowed to slip from your hand the reality of the union that is yours in Christ, a consciousness of that truth. And I believe consciousness of that truth, as it’s worked itself out, will force us in the direction that the OPC has gone.

It will force us to consider more thoroughly our union with Christ, and that is the foundation out of which we then work. It’s not, therefore, talking to this person and talking to that church and endearing by our own wits and by our own imaginations to construct a unified church. in response to the so-called ecumenical imperative. The command laid upon us to work for unity must flow forth from the unity that already exists for the body of Christ in himself. And therefore, such unity that is observed in us is not to our credit. We don’t pat ourselves on the back and say, We’ve got all these differences ironed out, we’re all back together, we’ve got this wonderful thing going, we’ve moved beyond nationalism, we’ve moved beyond ethnicity, we’re now, you know, doing these wonderful things. Any expression of genuine biblical unity for the body of Christ is merely an entering into the unity that already exists in Him. So it is completely and thoroughly of grace.

Now, from what I, the little I know, and I have tried to work through a little bit of John’s book, I don’t remember that kind of language being brought to the discussion. So in a sense, I’m, you know, I say this isn’t particularly helpful. Now, I think that there are other reasons why John’s approach isn’t particularly helpful and that is that I think that there is a tendency in his writings to be somewhat historically naive or shall I say, do I dare say it?

Yeah, see the OPC couldn’t win and that’s that’s also what I I I personally take exception to in the analyses that have been offered by some. If we, if they voted not to receive us, it was our fault. If we voted not to go in, it was our fault. We could not win in the minds of some. And that just merely reveals the attitude of mind, you know, the attitude of soul at work in the situation. We could not please. regardless. This doesn’t obviate at all, in any sense, the necessity for us to work towards unity.

And I could go through the OPC’s ecumenical philosophy, and I agree with it 100%. And that is that, first of all, we view ourselves as a Catholic Church. That’s primary. We view ourselves as a Catholic Church with international interest and concern that we’re not going to be locked up into some sort of provincialism that that basically a wall in because of the boundaries of this country and other we have a worldwide vision. And that that the commitment that I think is is is very important for understanding the O.P.C. in its ecumenical pursuits.

And that is another reason why we had a great deal of difficulty in working our way through the ecumenical proposals, because we were being asked to choose between two kinds of ecumenicity. It’s getting harder to talk. We had to choose between two forms of ecumenicity. If we go the R.P.C.S. direction, if we go the P.C.A. direction, there is a certain provincialism to which we must submit ourselves.

But in remaining what we were, we can still cultivate and develop this Catholic interest, which is to see Reformed and Calvinist and Presbyterian churches in fellowship worldwide. helping each other. I think John was first in the back. Yes, there are multiple questions. There are multiple issues involved in that question, and that has to do with the question of whether the cultural bridge had anything to do with those who left the denomination after the failure of Jan R. I definitely think that that is the case. I think that the church growth movement, and to a certain degree, the new life movement, insofar as it was influenced by the church growth movement, had those kinds of convictions.

They led with the card of evangelism. Now, see, everything I say gets me into trouble. And somebody will walk away, he’s against evangelism. No, no, no, no. But it’s as the OP has been stating all along, evangelism is unto the end of worship. So evangelism can’t be the goal. It is the means to the goal. The goal is the increased worship of God by those who are being gathered in.

But there was a tendency in the New Life group and in the Church Growth group to move in the direction of the primacy of evangelism. And I think that that moved it away from an OP understanding of things generally. I think that there are other factors. The new, the church growth movement was very much into technique.

I mean, you know what I mean. They had bought into the technique approach to developing, growing a church. It’s only a matter of the right method. You use the right method, it will succeed. And strangely enough, it would succeed for the JWs, the Mormons, the Buddhists. It didn’t matter who it was. You just plug in. You see? The technology’s neutral. You just plug in.

But you see there’s an interesting connection between the church growth movement mentality and the new life mentality. What was interesting, what was influencing Jack Miller as the new life movement was taking shape, was John Wesley’s journal. Now he will tell you that. And what was the consequence of John Wesley’s journal and his theology, this turn towards the experiential, this elevation of aspects within the human personality?

It was Methodism. You get the connection? We’ve got religious Methodism here, we’ve got religious technology over here. There’s a hand in glove or a hand-in-hand kind of relationship between the two. So I think that yes, you see this movement away from what we would consider to be historic classic Calvinism and not much sympathy for the disenfranchisement of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As far as I’m concerned, this must be at the forefront of our ecumenical policy with regard to not only churches in this country, but throughout the world. It has to be at the forefront, particularly in our foreign missions efforts. You realize what’s happening to the churches in the third world. You think the forces of nationalism here are rather subtle. They are incredibly, oh, you know, overt. blatant in other places in the world.

These people are under the gun. You have the case of the church in Indonesia. The church in Indonesia is told, the Reformed Church is told, if they want to be licensed, they must join the WCC. The state is making that determination. What do they do? Well, unfortunately, they joined. But what does the O.P. have to say to that? Not just by sending them a letter or sending them a position paper, but by its very existence. No, you do not have to do that. Make your stand. We’re with you. And to the extent we can, we will enter into the suffering with you. We will bear it with you.

What’s happening in Africa? As these churches start taking shape, the pressures of nationalism on these churches is unbearable. And what does the OP say? What is the OP message? You must not be in a culturated church. You must stand in a transcendent position with us. In a position that then transcends all national barriers and all racial and ethnic barriers. You must stand with us. You must stand in Ephesians 2.

There’s a lot of work to be done, and I feel that God in his providence is pushing us in these directions in our foreign missions policies and approach. Mark Beale is a wonderful man. He understands much of this. Our ecumenical Committee as well is seeing it more clearly, what kind of help, what kind of service will they be to these struggling, emerging churches in the world. We have a glorious message and a marvelous stand that we can put before them that hopefully will be a blessing.

Well, it may seem like a contradiction to what I’ve been saying, but I do wish that the OPC did have some men of the stature of Machen and Van Till and Murray and Kuiper today, and we don’t. And the question is, what are we going to do? Well, I know what I’m going to do.

In my own halting way, I’m going to keep preaching it, and as other men in the churches are going to do, but it’s not altogether a negative. The loss of those stalwart theologians pushes us, we who are ministers, we who are ruling elders in the church, to become extremely proficient in the Word and in our identity. We are forced to it. The strength is not going to come from some central theological clearinghouse, it seems.

Okay, so what are we going to do? We’re going to be forced to do a lot of work ourselves. And that may mean that our churches have to undergo some bit of a transformation in their own consciousness, they have to encourage their pastors to study, to work, to think these things through clearly and effectively. They have to give them time to do that.

Churches have to insist on not just passable sermons, but profound sermons. Give me more than I would get down the street at the typical fundamentalist evangelism, certainly more than we would get at the liberal church. You’ve given me more than we would get from an Arminian congregation. It could be an opportunity. The question of a theological seminary continues to be debated in the denomination.

There are discussions right now about that. The usefulness to our denomination of the Westminster campuses, we all recognize that there has been a change. East and West in relationship to the OPC. And yes, we’re suffering as a result of that. So let’s see what the Lord will do. Yes? There’s probably some truth in that. Yes, the question is, what do I say to those who say that the OPC is exclusivistic and looks down its nose at other sincere, genuine believers? I would say that there is a major major of truth to that but at the same time.

I really I really do not. I have never run into anyone in my experience for the O.P.C. And that includes my father-in-law. Bob Graham. that believes or believe that the O. P. C. was the only true church of the world. I mean we realize that was a joke when that name was proposed and that certainly in my experience has not been the attitude that I have found amongst O. P. I mean there is there is a great camaraderie there is a sense of fellowship that should be you find that anywhere within a denominator within denomination There is a strength to those connections, but I have not been aware of people who had the attitude that the OPC was the only true church.

And I have found that the OPs have been very solicitous. They have been very generous. I think that the conviction of OPs has generally been that you don’t have to believe in election to be a lot. Am I am I right. OK. OK. So we can we can graciously and properly. Extend ourselves to others who don’t believe in election. And hopefully we won’t do that in a particularly condescending manner. No, I’m not going to take this is what I’m going to give somebody else. OK, yes, and I hear this. This also gets me into trouble, of course, but the question is, what’s the proper way to take the gospel into the world? Yes, right.

I think one of the primary things is to recognize, recognize the the place, the role that the church has. The OPC is if not by express statement at least by practice and by parachurch. Counter parachurch. So we have been adamant in in in in the position that this is the church is that we take the Westminster Confession chapter twenty five paragraph three very seriously at least in terms of our practice in the past. which sees that the that the scriptures and the ministry and the and the proclamation of the gospel belong to the church they don’t belong there. So that’s first if we’re settled on that question we move ahead and so if the church is tapped out and now we got the question of of who in the church does this well again now we’re faced with a debate with it in the O.P.C. there are those who say well now you see you have the ordained the ministers of the word who are charged with this responsibility It is their job to preach and proclaim the word. They are the official proclaimers of the gospel. I agree with that position. This is where the official proclamation of the gospel takes place. What does that mean? Does that mean that we who are in the pew then are shackled? We cannot share our faith. We’re somehow indifferent. Heavens, no. But what you are doing is not preaching the gospel. Please understand that.

It is living the Christian life. And in the Christian life, you are sharing what you are. You are communicating what you are by what you say, what you do. It’s part of the Christian walk. But it isn’t specifically and narrowly defined preaching the gospel that belongs to those who have been ordained in the church for that purpose. So I think that that’s but ministers need to be encouraged to be proclaiming the gospel faithfully and fearlessly. Thinking of ways that they can get their message out into the community. Yet all of that there, and I think that at the same time, the ministry of the word must also be concerned that the people in the pew are are are living their Christian confession and by living that Christian confession, their words and their deeds are communicating the gospel and they’re not giving themselves an excuse for not doing so.

I might come back to the great reformational recovery of vocation. That has been lost in Reformed consciousness. I think that many of you realize that, where Luther and Calvin saw that our Christian obligation is to do our jobs well, before the Lord and for the Lord. So, if I’m an engineer, if I’m a politician, if I’m a teacher, if I’m an insurance agent, if I’m a housewife, whatever I am, I do this job before the Lord and for the Lord. keeping in mind the heavenly goal and orientation of my existence. And now you see what happens with the evangelical consciousness on this matter and fundamentalist consciousness.

The only real job you have is evangelizing. The only reason you have a job is to evangelize your fellow workers. Now it’s important that your fellow workers know where you stand. I believe that. conduct yourself in a way that the gospel is communicated. But your primary task is not as an evangelist. Your primary task is as a machinist, or that’s your calling. That’s your responsibility. That’s what God wants you to do. And I think if we can recover something of that, we will again have some pleasure in our work. Thank you, Charlie. We appreciate it.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 1, 1996
When a Feast Becomes an Idol

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 24, 1995.

About this sermon

Christ uses the Feast of Tabernacles in three ways, and none treats the feast as an end in itself. The warning lands close to home, since worshipping Christmas, or even one’s own family, in place of Christ is idolatry. Seasonal celebration left unexamined hinders godliness.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

We are reading this evening from John’s Gospel, Chapter 7. We have John’s seventh chapter, the first verse of that chapter. I’ll give you attention now to the reading of God’s holy word. And after these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Feast of the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, was at hand. His brothers therefore said to him, Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may behold your works which you are doing.

For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world, for not even his brothers were believing in him. Jesus therefore said to them, My time is not yet at hand, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it. that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come.”

And having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly, but, as it were, in secret. Then dropping down to verse thirty-seven, Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. At this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Our God, our heart goes out to your servants who, in various parts of this world, are seeking to serve the Lord Jesus. We are encouraged, O God, by news from Kenya. We ask, Lord, that your comfort and strength, which should sustain your servants there, and that they would minister the Lord Jesus Christ to these who suffer and are in great need. And Father, our heart goes out to the Maconin family, and we pray for Hailu. We ask Lord that in this present distress, you will give them the most extraordinary comfort and encouragement. Father, we pray that he and his wife may come through this surgery together well. And Lord, we ask for a quick recovery for both. And in their renewed health, may they serve you with joy, even as they are restored to their family and encouraged in their service to you. We pray this, O God, looking to you in faith. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

Now, my hope is that you will not interpret this message as a diatribe against the celebration of Christmas. It is not intended to be such. At the same time, it is designed to push you in the direction of a more faithful celebration of God’s goodness to you, regardless of what time of year it might be. So, we turn to a story this evening that is not amongst the usual passages that are cited during the Christmas season.

We turn to this text in Matthew 7, which concerns Jesus’ presence at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the great festivals during the Jewish year. It was the fall festival, coinciding with the ingathering of the harvest, much like our Thanksgiving. In the seventh chapter of John, Jesus does three things with this feast that interest us this evening.

The first thing he does is to establish his relationship to this particular Jewish festival and through it to all Jewish feasts, but also to suggest his relationship to every sort of religious celebration, even those of a seasonal character. At the opening of this chapter, This is made clear to us.

For Jesus says that he will not go to this feast with his brothers, verse 8. In fact, as I have endeavored to show in previous messages, he must not go up with his brothers to this feast, because they look at the feast, at this festival, as an opportunity to exploit him and his supposed power. In their minds, the feast provides a setting for Jesus to perform great signs of messianic magic, to do something apocalyptic, even bring in the kingdom. when they tell him that he must perform his deeds before the world. Not just Jerusalem, not just Judea, but before the world. But while Jesus will not go up with them to the feast, as we are told in verse 10, he does go up later, but he goes up secretly. And it is here that Jesus, in effect, declares the truth about his relationship to religious celebrations, even those that are of a particular seasonal character.

He goes up, not publicly, but, as it were, in secret. So here’s the Jesus begins by distancing himself not just from his brothers, but from the observance of this festival, this feast itself. But at the same time, he will assert himself. He will assert himself, that is what he truly is. into the festivities that are taking place. And it is in this manner that he forces those involved in the celebration to deal with him specifically, even if it means that they reject him.

Jesus does not go up. to the festival of Christmas. He has no real place in the spectacle of its contrived piety, its manufactured goodwill, its wild commercialism, its creches, its elaborate choral and religious productions. Yet in the midst of this festival, in the midst of the celebrations connected with it, Jesus, yes, the true Jesus, the real Jesus, steals in to catch people unaware.

And catching them unaware, he convinces them that they must not ever judge things by appearance. by external observance, by religious practice, something that Christmas generates exceedingly well. Instead, they must judge with what Jesus calls the righteous judgment. In chapter 7, verse 24, that is, the judgment that sees by faith. and appropriates the truth about Christ hidden from view. Through the glitz, the camouflage, the religious, the family, the cultural traditions, Jesus penetrates to confront his own with his glory.

He is not the Jesus of popular culture and commercialized religious spectacle that you need to know. It is not the Jesus of the festival or the feast that can save you, but the true Jesus who intrudes upon our celebrations, even coming into them secretly.

Are you able to perceive his presence, or are you distracted? Are you distracted by the whites? Are you distracted by the hustle and bustle? Are you distracted by the infinite number of diversions that attach themselves even to the religious aspects of this holiday? The second thing Jesus does with this feast of tabernacles is that he fulfills it. Now, here is a remarkable fact.

Jesus’ brothers also want him to fulfill the Feast, but they want him to fulfill the Feast according to their own estimations. And, believe me, their estimations of fulfillment has nothing to do with what their brother Jesus is all about as he comes and presents himself in Jerusalem during this time. And believe me, their estimations have nothing to do with their brother Jesus standing up on the last day of the feast, the great day of the feast, and making an absolute fool of himself by crying out, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. That’s not what they had in mind. And beyond that, in addition to this sort of talk being just plain silly in their judgment, it suggests that Jesus is positing the end of the feast itself, as if Jesus was setting himself over against the feast.

In coming to the feast, the people there would think that they were celebrating the regular goodness of God, His provision to them, and harvests the regularity of God in his dealings with them, but now Jesus is suggesting that if people are thirsty, they should come to him. It’s as if Jesus is setting himself over against the feast. In other words, the hopes rehearsed in the feast, particularly hopes with regard to water, by which the fields might be supplied and nourished and bring forth a crop, particularly with regard to provision, the harvest itself. All of this Jesus now attaches to his own person. He, standing in the middle of the feast, is calling attention to himself.

And if his brothers are alert to what he is saying, they cannot conclude anything else than that what Jesus is claiming here veils the most outrageous claim. For he, it seems, is claiming to be the source of life, vitality, and prosperity. Why, it’s as if Jesus was saying that he were God. Think of it.

But if things are as Jesus says, then he does stand in reality as the end point for the feast and its celebration, claiming to be God himself. and declaring that this feast is fulfilled in the sense that it is finished and abrogated because of who he is and what he is able to do. But we believe, so his brothers object and many others in Jerusalem, but we object. If Jesus is truly the Messiah, he must bring with him and oversee an ongoing perpetual celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, even to the point of extending that celebration into hostile territories, into Gentile lands, even to the ends of the world, to the advantage of the oppressed and downtrodden Jew.

The feast is an end in itself. Festivals are ends in themselves. They carry their own meaning. They even develop their own meaning and tradition. And you truly pay homage to the festival when you understand this, that the festival is an end in itself. And it is meant, according to what gods you may worship, to continue indefinitely, interminably, perpetually, and have no end at all. Be as long-lasting as the earth in which you live.

And since you cannot conceive of the earth ending, then the feast will not end either. Now, when it comes to Christmas, admittedly, we have less support in the Bible for the celebration of this holiday than the Jews did for Tabernacles. But I’m afraid whatever legitimacy there is in the Church for marking Christ’s birth specifically during the year, and I believe that there is a legitimacy, don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely no legitimacy for the worship of the season, the day, its customs. And let me tell you, there is no justification for worship of family. For all of these things make the celebration an end in itself, or something in the creation, something of this world, an end in itself. Isn’t it interesting that with regard to Jesus’ involvement with this festival, the Feast of Tabernacles, He is involved in a debate with his brothers. Family cannot be made ultimate any more than the festival can be.

There is no life in parent in the day, in the season, in season’s greetings. you must understand there is life only in Jesus Christ, whose fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles means a flood of water and blood pouring out of his side at his death, so that his people might be secured eternally. for the eternal and perpetual festival in heaven. The third thing Jesus does to the feast is to make those who believe in him, so he says now in the latter verses of this chapter, and that’s why we’ve had them, to make those who believe in him a virtual fulfillment of the feast also. He is a fulfillment, but they, by virtue of their relationship to Him, become a fulfillment also.

He says, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, from whose inmost being shall flow rivers of living water. It’s as if you don’t even need the showers from heaven anymore. You don’t even need rain, let alone the water from the Jordan or any lake or pond. He who believes in me, as the scripture says, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”

Thus it is that in Jesus’ fulfillment of the Feast, we are freed from our dependence upon it. Our freedom is extraordinary. It is as if, in being made in ourselves a fulfillment of this feast, we become the perpetual celebration of the feast’s reality.

And thus it is that we are continually bearing fruit, even according to what we find elsewhere in Scripture, particularly in the epistles of Paul. It’s the language of Tabernacles behind the vocabulary of the Apostle as he speaks to us, as we are fruit-bearing citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, as we are blessed in the Spirit and in the fruit of the Spirit, as we are made veritable trees of life, our leaves never withering, and whatsoever we do prospering. Thus, what we are, we are not ever seasonally Do you see the trap? Whatever we are, we are not seasonally.

We are that which Christ has made us continually. As this relates to Christmas, do you really need a special season to celebrate the coming of Christ into the world? Much better that we and our persons and our very persons are a continual celebration of the coming of Christ and all that he means. A continual celebration of the riches and prosperity that belong to God’s love for us.

Sadly, tragically, Seasonal celebration can be a hindrance to genuine, true godliness. May that not be the case for any of us. If indeed, O God, we have been touched by you through the gospel, in the word of the Savior, we ask that we might be alive with genuine response to you at all times. Lord, we do have these times during the year. when it seems that we are focused on particular aspects of gospel reality. But we ask, O God, that the reality of the gospel will have no season in us, and that we will be continually celebrating the goodness of our God, the beauty of your love for us, and the coming of your Son, that we might be saved from our sins delivered from darkness and brought into your eternal kingdom of light and righteousness. This we pray through Christ our Savior. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

December 24, 1995
Judging Rightly, Not by Appearance

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 17, 1995.

About this sermon

John 7:24 calls for righteous judgment, drawn from Old Testament law and aimed at the Spirit more than at outward appearance. Contentment with earthly custom is exactly the posture this text rules out. Real judgment sees past what a thing looks like to what it is.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Tonight we are reading in John 7, and we are beginning in verse 1. John’s Gospel, the seventh chapter, the first verse. Give your attention to the reading of God’s holy word. And after these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee. for he was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, was at hand. His brothers therefore said to him, Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may behold your works which you are doing.

For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world, for not even his brothers were believing in him. Jesus therefore said to them, My time is not yet at hand, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come.’

And having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. The Jews, therefore, were seeking him at the feast and were saying, And there was much grumbling among the multitudes concerning him. Some were saying, he is a good man. Others were saying, no, on the contrary, he leads the multitude astray. Yet no one was speaking openly of him for fear of the Jews.

But when it was now the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jews, therefore, were marveling, saying, how has this man become learned? having never been educated. Jesus therefore answered them and said, My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you carries out the law? Why do you seek to kill me?” The multitude answered, “‘You have a demon. Who seeks to kill you?’ Jesus answered and said to them, “‘I did one deed, and you all marvel. On this account Moses has given you circumcision, not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken. Are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

And then at verse 37, Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Our Father, we would bow before you in every aspect of the Church’s life, and therefore, Lord, our prayer is that we might more perfectly reflect your will and purpose for us here in this assembly. Lord, may it please you to give to us a full range of gospel proclamation, that your people may be instructed even reminded of the great saving works of our God. But also, Lord, we are praying that the message of the gospel, the gospel of free grants, might in fact be heard here for the sake of those who would be drawn to you, and that you would be pleased to use us and the ministry of this church for the gathering of your elect. Father, we pray, too, that as far as the structure of our Church is concerned, that we would be conscious of your Word and its program for our Church and its life. We pray, Father, for vitality in the leadership of this Church, for the elders and the deacons that serve. We ask also for all in the congregation that we might live aware of one another, that as we are bound together here, O God, so we shall be bound together in glory. We pray this now, looking to you, seeking the ministry of your word to our souls.

For Jesus’ sake, amen. When we consider the gospel of John, many powerful stories as well as powerful verses come to mind. We may even put those stories and verses that we know very well at the center of the gospel and suggest that in them we have found the gospel’s meaning. We may do this, for instance, with the story of Nicodemus, a story very well known to us.

We may do this with the text from that story that we have all committed to memory, John 3.16.

Some might even turn to the story of the blind man of John 9, one of my own favorites. and to its aftermath in John chapter 10, and pick up the wonderful statement of Jesus from that context in the 11th verse of the 10th chapter, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep.

Or later, some may even turn to a lighter context, that one in which we find Jesus in his last evening on this earth before his crucifixion, when he had a brief exchange with Thomas and said to Thomas in response, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.

Ordinarily, however, when it comes to folks listing central or even favorite chapter and verse from John’s Gospel, not many or any would list John 7. Now, I’m not going to tell you this evening that John 7 is the most important chapter in John’s Gospel. but I am going to argue for the greatness of this chapter and for the exceptional ability or power of one of its verses to pour the gospel of John in its entirety into focus. I have in mind John 7, verse 24.

In this verse, Jesus says this, “‘Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.’” You might have passed over this text. You might not have considered it very long at all in your reading of this gospel, or in your reading of this chapter, or even possibly in the reading of this chapter this evening. But believe me, it is a great verse, a great text. Let me suggest to you some of why that is.

First of all, it draws its significance in part from the Old Testament law. is the one in whom the law is fulfilled. Jesus is the one who properly exegetes the law. He knows the law, its purpose, its intention, and even its limitation. But this text, John 7.24, does draw from the Old Testament law. Exodus chapter 23 verse 2 is one of the places from which this statement by Jesus may rise.

Here, Exodus 23 verse 2, we find God giving Israel instruction at Sinai, and specifically that they are not to follow a mob in their attitudes, assessments, and judgments. nor are they to pervert justice by giving false evidence. The Jews, as a people, therefore, were to judge, if you will, the righteous judgment. That is, a judgment that stood in the interests of God’s revelation of Himself. in the interests of God’s specific revelation from Sinai, the revelation that is found in his law. This righteous judgment was contrary to the unrighteousness that would wickedly take advantage of someone else’s situation, or adopt to oneself the attitudes and frame of mind of those who were in the land of promise as the Israelites made their way to that land to dispossess them.

In Leviticus 19, verse 5, another text dealing with proper judgment. Here, the emphasis falls upon equity and fairness. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but judge the righteous judgment—that is, the fair and equitable judgment. The righteous judgment in this context, then, having to do with equity and fairness.

Deuteronomy 16, verses 18 through 20. These verses change the focus somewhat, as here the directive comes to Israel concerning the kinds of judges and officers that Israel is to have in its communities. These individuals, officers and justices, would be anticipatory of the elders that now we have in our churches. At any rate, these, so identified here in this Deuteronomy passage, are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

The words are there, as if here you find a background and backbone for Jesus’ statement in Deuteronomy. John 7. The officers of Israel must not, therefore, distort justice or be partial. They must not take bribes. Instead, we are told they are to pursue justice and justice alone.

The righteous judgment, then, as we look at the law of God, the righteous judgment is to be impartial, clear-eyed. and uncorrupted. So then, the witness of the law enjoins both people and leaders to make honest assessments and thus render just judgments. But what if the truth is not evident by observation? What if the truth is not evident by the observation of circumstances and the blatant evidence at hand? What if the truth actually lies beyond the obvious, or worse yet, what if one’s own eyes deceive him for whatever reason, be it even a matter of his own Jesus, in his comments in John 7, you might have noted it in verse 19, speaks about the inability of those Jews in his day to keep the law of Moses, they even pursuing his own execution contrary to the law of God. The Prophet Isaiah sees this problem that comes in view at this point, the problem of truth obscured, truth hidden, truth not obvious.

And the Prophet Isaiah sees as well the resolution of this problem, as he speaks through the inspiration of the Spirit. concerning the coming of the Messiah. I have a text from that book of Emanuel in view, Isaiah chapter 11, and its famous statement concerning the coming of the Messiah and the Messianic age. That text talks about the Messiah as shoot and branch from the vine of Jesse, verse 1 in that eleventh chapter. upon whom the Spirit of the Lord will rest,” verse 2. But the verse I want you to notice is the third verse of that eleventh chapter, where the Messiah is described as that one who delights in the fear of the Lord.

And because he fears the Lord, He is one, then, who judges with righteous judgment, and notice what is said about him. He will not judge, says the prophecy, by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear. He is gone beyond the obvious, beyond the evident, beyond that which is plain and clear. In other words, the Messiah, in judging the righteous judgment, is carried beyond the canons of the mere external and sensory discernment. For the Messiah, judging with righteous judgment, means then making determination on more than the obvious, more than the apparent.

But of course, even with this, as we come out of the Old Testament law and the prophets, the possibility exists that we will think that the Messiah himself merely has the advantage of getting beneath the surface, of dealing with and seeing into the heart and to the heart of any issue.

But all of that, at the level of life lived in this world, and on the surface plane of this creation, and in the interests of such life as that. In fact, with the law and the prophets in hand, It is possible of giving the appearance of judging with righteous judgment. The Jews of Jesus’ day have the law, and they also have the prophets, and they are brimming over, are they not, with messianic hope and expectation, John 7 being witness to that. So it is possible, even with all this advantage, of giving the appearance of judging with righteous judgment, when in fact such judgment is actually a judgment according to appearance.

This is why John 7, 24 is such a great text, and why I suggested to you that it has the capability of drawing us to the very center of what John, in his gospel, is endeavoring to communicate throughout the entirety of that gospel. Now, this text is set both broadly and narrowly in the context of prescribed behavior for the Jewish people. Broadly, the setting is, as you note at the beginning of the chapter, the Feast of Tabernacles. While narrowly, as Jesus introduces the subject himself through the development of the chapter, while narrowly, the context seems to be now a dispute specifically over the Sabbath, and a healing which Jesus performed on the Sabbath. Now, admittedly, with the broad context, the issue is a clear matter concerning God’s law, for the Feast of Tabernacles was a commanded feast, one which all the males of Israel from a certain age were commanded by the law to attend. While the issue at stake in the narrow consideration, specifically the Sabbath, seems to have to do with the traditions that have developed around the Sabbath from those teachers and instructors within Israel.

But even given the difference as you move from the broader context to the more narrow context, Jesus’ words here in John 7.24 are meant to drive home a singular point. And that singular point is this. The world of appearance—in fact, this world, with its judgments, observations, and even laws—is one thing. The world of righteous judgment is a completely different thing. Let me pull this out for you a little bit. better from a parallel text that appears a chapter later in John.

I have in mind here John 8.15, where Jesus seemingly repeats himself, at least in part. For here he says, you people judge according to the flesh. and he sets his judgment, then, in the conclusion of that verse, over against theirs.

If we join John 7.24 with John 8.15, it would seem that Jesus, then, is equating judgment according to appearance with judgment according to the flesh.

And that being the case, As we think of the implications of this, we might then say that judging with righteous judgment, in the sense in which John 7.24 means it, can only mean judging in the Spirit over against the flesh. But what does that mean? What does it mean to judge according to the Spirit? The sense of this in John’s Gospel must be a judgment in keeping with the reality. that Jesus Christ brings about through his finished work.

No, no, no. It is not simply judgment by an appeal to something ethereal, something immaterial. It’s not just judgment in terms of what we might consider to be the finer things of existence, something that speaks to us about the aesthetic qualities of life, Something inherently capable for us because we have the potentiality of the Spirit. Yes, beyond the flesh, there is the Spirit, and there is the Spirit in us all, and we can appeal to that. Something that is native to our constitution.

Besides, Jesus isn’t even making appeal to that which is there as it were, from the beginning of the story of salvation. He has in mind something specifically new, something radical. He has in mind that reality which comes as a result of his finished work, the spirit over against the flesh. the flesh being the old, and the Spirit being the new.

Judgment in keeping, then, with the coming of the Spirit and the world which the Spirit brings with him—the new atmosphere, the new environment. into which Jesus Christ enters in the Spirit and we after him. Yes, all of this in keeping with what Jesus then declares later on in the great day of the feast, spoken of in verses 37-39. Another way to say it is that the righteous judgment of which Jesus speaks here is the heavenly, transcendent judgment, providing us vantage point then to make assessment, and to make assessment in truth with judgments and assessments that are eternal, that belong to the environment of eternity.

So you see, it is not just honest, impartial, uncorrupted judgment. Even though that is preached by the law and reinforced by the law, it just doesn’t make it. It can’t cut it in the end. It is inadequate, nor just superb. sublime, penetrating analysis and assessment that always goes right to the heart of matter.

Rather, such judgment as Jesus has in mind here is judgment that comes forth from the heart of heaven, from the very heart of God. which now asserts itself in the world through Jesus Christ because of his finished work and because of the gift of the Spirit. It is precisely such a judgment as this that scrutinizes Old Testament law itself, and all Jewish custom and tradition build upon it. even be they such things as sublime as the Feast of Tabernacles and the Sabbath itself.”

The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. And I dare say, if you are following along now with me, as with Israel, so with the new Israel, as with the Jews, so with you Christians. It is precisely such judgment as Jesus speaks of here that scrutinizes your observance and your involvement with your customs and traditions. Be they as wonderful as sacraments and sabbaths and holiday celebrations Might Jesus speak the same way to you in the context of your celebration of Christmas as he spoke to the Jews in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles? Jesus in this gospel then John, driving home the point, propels you past the appearance of all of these things, be they sacraments or Sabbaths or special holiday celebrations, lest you ever content yourself that by paying your respects to any one of them, even meticulously observing them, you are inherently satisfying God. At the beginning of the seventh chapter, Jesus said that he would not go up to the Feast of Tabernacles with his brothers.

In verse 10, he says, we are told that he did go up after all. He does the same today. He refuses to go up insofar as what we go up to as an observance fit for mere appearance. He refuses to go up today in order to confound judgment made according to appearance, according to the flesh. But he does go out, albeit secretly, in stealth, in the interests of the righteous, heavenly, spiritual judgment which he executes. You are being scrutinized right now by Him. He is here by stealth.

In our feasts, our sacraments, our Sabbaths, our Savior still goes up secretly, that is, in the Spirit, that he might challenge all our attitudes about life lived at the mere level of appearance. And he does so in order to beckon us all to the full life in the eternal realm of the Spirit, out of which we are enabled to judge the righteous judgment in and through Him. Lord, as we think about it, we are frightened because it may well be that we sit here for appearance sake. But Lord, you come up to our service of worship, and you are here secretly. in the interests that we might discern you and judge the righteous judgment. That is, the judgment which is in keeping with the spirit and the world that he brings with him. Forgive us, O God, for our practice may be an insult to you.

But in our prayer this evening, we plead the righteousness of our Savior, whose performance in every circumstance is in keeping with that world which the Spirit brings. Bless us in all of our observations and observances. May our celebrations be pure, as we are always alert to Christ in secret, hidden among us. We pray this, that we in fact, Lord, might live worthy of the calling that we have received in Him. unto the end, that we might see, in fact, that world which we believe exists.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

December 17, 1995
Living Water for Unbelieving Brothers

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 10, 1995.

About this sermon

Christ acts provocatively at the start of John 7, and his actions carry literary shape and theological weight. John 7:5 calls his own brothers unbelievers, still committed to an earthly religion. Against that unbelief Christ offers himself as living water.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Tonight we are beginning our reading in John chapter 6, and we are starting at verse 67. Reading then into chapter 7, John 6 verse 67, give your attention to God’s word. Jesus said, therefore, to the twelve, You do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, did I myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is the devil?

Now he meant Judas, the son of Simon Ascariot, For he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. And after these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee. For he was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, was at hand. His brothers therefore said to him, Depart from here and go into Judea. that your disciples also may behold your works which you are doing.

For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers were believing in him. Jesus therefore said to them, My time is not yet at hand, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come.”

Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. The Jews, therefore, were seeking him at the feast and were saying, where is he? And there was much grumbling among the multitudes concerning him. Some were saying, he is a good man. Others were saying, no, on the contrary, he leads the multitude astray. Yet no one was speaking openly of him for fear of the Jews.

And then down to verse 37, Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. At this he spoke of the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive. for the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Our God, you have ceased from your labors, even from the creation. Your rest is that into which you enter upon the completion of your work. Yet, Lord, the pattern that we behold there is one that is still pertinent for us. For, Lord, there is work yet that you perform. even that work for the salvation of your people. Lord, this too is complete. Even as Jesus declared from the cross, it is finished. And thus He enters into that rest which is His, over which He presides. For He, the Son of Man, is Lord of the seven.

Father, there remains for us a Sabbath keeping. Yes, Lord, there is that which marks the beginning of our weeks in testimony of the fact that redemption and the rest that is seen in it has arrived. But Father, we also know that you have given us this day as an emblem of that rest and we pray that it might be sanctified by us. In it, may we delight in you, in what you have accomplished, and help us, our Father, to keep it as is right. Lord, I bless you for this congregation and rejoice in the compliance to your will that is found here. I thank you for the Sabbath-keeping of this congregation and even of this denomination. May this not be a matter of self-righteousness or pride, but of thankfulness before you. And Lord, we pray that your grace may have its perfect work in us, even as we set ourselves to the keeping of this day. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Jesus’ actions at the opening of John 7 are difficult. They are deliberately difficult. The record of them here, as that record has been set down by John, in keeping with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, The intention of them is that they are to be provocative. That is, they are meant to provoke thought, they are meant to provoke meditation, so that those who encounter this record, so that those who hear it might better understand the Savior and His message. to the end that it might be determined who truly follows Jesus.

Do you understand Jesus and His message? Are you truly His followers? If so, you must then walk through the deliberate difficulty of Jesus’ actions at the beginning of this seventh chapter. And at the end of this excursion, be determined all the more to cling to Him as God’s deliverer.

Such determination on your part, moving through this seventh chapter, such determination on your part then opens up for you the fullest satisfaction of what Jesus says later on in the chapter about the rivers of living water in connection with the Holy Spirit, verses 38 and 39. in chapter 7 introduces you to the deliberate difficulty.

We are told here that Jesus was walking in Galilee, and not in Judea, because the Jewish authorities in Judea were seeking to destroy him. However, before too far into the 7th chapter, in fact by verse 10, we find Jesus not only on his way to Judea, but as far as the narrative in John’s gospel is concerned, he will never again walk in Galilee. Now, this makes this seventh chapter in John’s gospel strategic in the overall development of the gospel.

With Jesus’ journey to the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall season prior to his death the following spring, Jesus’ ministry has reached its critical stage, the supreme importance of which is now being driven home by the apparent inconsistencies in Jesus’ behavior. You see, as soon as we are told that Jesus is unwilling to walk in Judea, we find him walking in Judea.

And if this challenges our rational perception of things, the subsequent exchange with his brothers and its aftermath will challenge us further. Jesus’ brothers want him to go to the feast. They want him to go into Judea and to Jerusalem so that his disciples in that region might observe his works.

They even provide him here with their own commentary on the situation, their own observations about the whole matter. related to his disclosure. From them comes expert advice. The counsel of men—those closest to him, seemingly, by family tie—the counsel of these who obviously know what is going on. what is taking place, what all of these matters surrounding him are all about. In fact, they presume to know what is best for Jesus and his minister. But Jesus holds them at arm’s length.

He talks about his time not being at hand as yet. about their time always being right. He tells them that it is impossible for the world to hate them, while he exposes the world with the evidence of its corruption, and thus incurs the world’s wrath. He then tells his brothers to go to the feast themselves. He will not be going, he says, because his time has not as yet been completed. But after saying that he would not go up to the feast, and after his brothers had themselves departed for the feast, He is telling them directly that he would not be going, verse 8. Lo and behold, he goes up anyway, albeit secretly, verse 10. So here you have it. Jesus, who is unwilling to walk in Judea, walks in Judea. Jesus, who states emphatically that he will not be going up to the feast, goes up to the feast.

And John, who is telling us these things, doesn’t seem to be embarrassed whatsoever by them, despite the inconsistencies, despite the ambivalence, and even what appears to be duplicity that suggests problems and flaws in the character of Jesus, John doesn’t hesitate to relate these matters to us.

Why? Why does John do this? Does he do it in order to confer on Jesus the full range of our humanity? to suggest that Jesus is so close to us that he actually shares our indecisiveness, our ambivalence, our quandary, even to the point that he does something that he most emphatically states he will not do. Not at all. John’s interest is both literary and theological. Literarily, John is at the great transition point in his gospel, and at this transition point he lays on us a genuine, a true lapel grabber. He will punctuate this transition as you move from Galilee to Judea with a huge literary exclamation point.

So monumental is it, so incongruous is it, that it compels you to take note, to wake up, to pay attention. And this is all the more important because of the danger that rises out of the conclusion of chapter six. You see, having come through chapter six, those who are reading this are liable to imagine themselves in a very safe position.

They are liable to see themselves in the company of the select disciples, in the company of Peter himself, at home blithely and serenely with Peter’s confession, and not alert to the depth of the difficulty facing them. Thus it is, John’s grand literary gambit serves his theological intention. The murmuring multitudes of the previous chapter, those that are incensed at Jesus’ words, the false disciples that we read about in that chapter, those that draw back and walk with Jesus no longer, Yes, these are all prospects as you look at the Church, but there’s an even further danger that there might be those that stand seemingly secure in their imagination, in their estimation of things, with Peter and his confession, seeing themselves then with the Twelve, their faith being genuine, and an expression of integrity. They lulled to sleep by these estimations and conclusions with regard to themselves.

But now, they are compelled in the story, as you move from the sixth chapter to the to lead the safe confines of Galilee to the environment of threat and intimidation, even of death, in Judea. And by doing so, as they move from the sixth to the seventh chapter, they are forced to go through and beyond the type of faith which Jesus’ own family members exhibit—those closest to him, his brothers. For it is in these family members that we perceive now the threat to the members of the family of God, that is, those who are members of Christ’s Church. Read the seventh chapter, then, off of the Church of Christ and its existence. In these family members, then, we have at work one vision for the Church and its Savior, while in Jesus we have another vision altogether.

Jesus’ brothers, his family members, are not denying the supernatural. They accept it. You must realize that his brothers have witnessed his miracles. They have not questioned those miracles. They have not questioned Jesus’ ability to perform them. We can say that his brothers then, after a fashion, do in fact believe.

All they seemingly are asking at this point is that Jesus give himself to a population center. He give himself to the center of activity, an urban center, if you will, so that he can be noticed. They’re sincere in their interest, they’re sincere in their ambitions for Jesus. because they perceive that he placing himself in a population center will then have the greatest impact.

What good is a religion if it doesn’t have impact? But particularly, they move beyond. just a provincial impact. You’ll notice that they speak about Jesus’ impact upon the world. What they are looking for is global impact. As they say, it is imperative that their brother Jesus, for whom they have such high hopes, show himself to the world. But there is something else here you must realize about Jesus’ brothers and their religion. Their religious expectation when it comes to Jesus are anything but ordinary. That is to say, these men are not looking on Jesus as if he were just another preacher or another religious personality. another individual who might make his appearance at Jerusalem, for they are making their statements in the hopes that he is actually the Messiah.

They are entertaining, to say the least, that possibility. Therefore, their suggestions to Jesus should be prefaced with the words, or given Peter’s confession in chapter 6, verses 68 and 69, if you are the Holy One of God, that is, God’s own Son, then go up to the feast where you belong, rally your disciples by your great messianic signs, do something public, something stupendous in Jerusalem, perform an apocalyptic sign by which the world itself will be compelled to acknowledge you. some past mere religious expectation and life to the specifics of messianic expectation and hope. But Jesus will not go up. In fact, he must not go up to the feast to satisfy such religious conviction and interest. To do so would mean for him to acquiesce to the religious and theological frame that is utterly antithetical to his true purpose.

His brother’s advice is just another form of satanic seduction, comparable to what we hear in the devil’s temptations of Christ in the wilderness. change the stones to bread, leap from the temple’s pinnacle, fall down and worship Satan, and he will give you all the kingdoms of the world.”

Jesus’ response to his brothers. In that response, we hear something of a blistering comment to Peter, offered after Peter’s confession in another context. get you behind me, Satan. You are minding the things of man, not the things of God.” But there is still one more dimension to Jesus’ brother’s doctrine.

Beyond the quest for religious impact, and in spite of the messianic sensationalism they crave, their doctrine and religious outlook, believe it or not, is thoroughly pedestrian and common. You see, they have no room, really, for the utterly unique, catastrophic intrusion of the reality of God into their world.

As Jesus tells them, your time is always opportune. In other words, your time is always the same. One thing after another. So it goes. Thus they are managed. these brothers of his, they are managed and controlled by the practical necessities and regularities and the ordinariness of common, repetitive religious systems.

Their observance of religious celebrations reinforces and confirms the constant predictability of their existence. And that’s their real religion. Even their messianic hopes are worked within the framework of this philosophy of life. Whatever upheaval the Messiah brings must be in the interests of the continuation of their world and its religious order. even the perpetuation of the Feast of Tabernacles as they are presently celebrating, or something comparable to it.

And because the world itself, even with its evil, even with its evil deeds, is never threatened by such religion It’s never threatened by such religion, because such religion is actually of the world. Then the truth follows that the world cannot hate these men. It is impossible for the world to hate them.

The world and these people, in their religious convictions and practices, believe in the spinning of the earth. That’s what they believe in. It is always the same. Nothing interrupts it. If the Messiah comes, regardless of what cataclysm he brings, it is merely in the interest of confirming the spinning of the earth. Necessity, ordinariness, that which is common, that which we know, that which we control, that which we can understand.

So John throws into the works something you can’t understand. Jesus says, I’m not going to the feast, and then he goes. All rationality, at least this kind of rationality, collapses. Utterly collapses right on the spot. You are dealing with an entirely different order. Jesus is from a different world. He will confine you. He will make shadows of your rational pretensions, and so will the Word of God.

So the fact of the matter is, it is impossible for the world to hate such religious practice and doctrine. Because all that religious practice and doctrine does is confirm what the world already believes. And in that setting, is the evil of the world in any sense challenged? No. It just keeps on spinning.

But of course you know Jesus, being from somewhere else, represents and speaks for that somewhere else. He represents something that is from another world and order of existence altogether. Something that comes stealthily, even deceiving the world and its religious system as he does. In a manner more subtle than Satan’s manner, asserting himself into the comfortable, predictable, common environment of worldly religion.

Be that religion the religion of Jesus’ closest family members, or be it the religion of very comfortable churchgoers who claim to bear his name. Jesus challenges all such religion, and in his word, here in verse 5, it is declared to be unbelief. It is declared to be unbelief. You don’t just believe a little and you’re going to get by with that. No, no, no. It is declared to be unbelief. You are not going to heaven. you are going to hell with such religion as Jesus’ brothers have.

But those who believe, as Jesus tells us on the great day of the in keeping with the testimony of Scripture. Those who believe have from their innermost being rivers of living water flowing. They themselves become in virtual spiritual paradises, and part and parcel of the other world from which Jesus has come.

Dear Lord, we would be shocked, then, appropriately, by the opening of John 7, even as it forces us to come to grips with your Son and his message. and, Lord, wrath in the interests of our being built up in a sure and certain faith that is far removed from presumption, far removed from the foolishness of worldly religion. May all of us here, Lord, realize that our Savior has come from above, and that we who belong to him are born from above, and that we, in the end, shall be brought to the place where Jesus is, that region above. This is the focus and the intention of his mission and ministry. Father, may our faith be firm in these things we do not see, even as this faith carries us past the obvious things of worldly religion. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

December 10, 1995
The Feast That Points to Heaven

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 3, 1995.

About this sermon

The Feast of Tabernacles runs from Leviticus 23 through Israel’s whole history, and the Old Testament consistently points it toward a heavenly kingdom to come. Christ’s presence at the feast in John 7 fulfills it. The Spirit has a central place in that fulfillment.

More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

We are reading from John chapter 7 this evening, and we are beginning at verse 25. Hear the word of God. Therefore, some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? And look, he is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to him.

The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? However, we know where this man is from. But whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where he is from. Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, you both know me and know where I am from. And I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true whom you do not know. I know him because I am from him and he sent me.

They were seeking therefore to seize him. No man lay his hand on him because his hour had not yet come. But many of the multitude believed in him. And they were saying, When the Christ shall come, he will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will he? Pharisees heard the multitude muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize him. Jesus therefore said, For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to him who sent me.

You shall seek me and shall not find me. and where I am you cannot come. The Jews therefore said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we shall not find him? He is not intending to go to dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? What is this statement that he said? You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot come.

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Some of the multitude, therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, certainly this is the prophet. Others were saying this is the Christ. Still others were saying, surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is he? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So there arose a division in the multitude because of him, and some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.”

Let’s pray together now. Help us, our Father, with your word, may we respect the ordering of things for us as you have structured things for your people and for the assembly. Indeed, what privilege is ours, O God, that we individually have copies of your word. It has not always been so for your people. Therefore, in times past, your children had to gather in the assembly to hear the Word. That structure and pattern, O God, is still fitting for us, even though we have our Bibles in can.

For above all, Lord, we are to congregate and dare to receive from you your word, even collectively as we are your people. Father, we pray that in this assembly, all of us, young and old, parents and children, may receive of your word good things, the blessings of the covenant wonders of the gospel. And Father, we also ask that we would not turn a deaf ear to the correction and the reproof that is given us from your word. Bless us with humility, even as your word comes to us as light for our understanding. And in that understanding may we prove to be good members of the body, corrected ourselves in our actions and in our words, and also good examples, especially to the children. And may the children also, Father, be strengthened, that they, growing up to maturity, would confess you fully and own you as God and King. This we pray through Christ, and in his name. Amen.

Tonight we come to the beginning of our messages on Christ’s final public proclamation of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John. We have noted three earlier public statements from Christ concerning the Holy Spirit. We noted them in the third chapter of John, where Jesus is engaged with Nicodemus. We also noted them, these references and comments about the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ exchange with the woman at the well in John chapter four. We have as well in the previous chapter, John 6, Jesus’ statement about the Spirit in relationship to flesh, which profits nothing, and also in relationship to the Word.

We then find our blessing in and from the Word as we are carried from sacramental elements to the true meaning of Christ’s grace for us out of heaven. Tonight’s text is John 7, verses 37 through 39. Now, a good understanding of these verses demands that we come to grips with two background items. is the Feast that is in view, the Feast that is in progress in the course of this chapter, the Feast mentioned in verse 37, specifically the Feast of Tabernacles. The second item that we will have to grasp in order to understand better the intention of Jesus in this text is the matter of Jesus’ movements through the course of this seventh chapter.

Some of you may know this chapter, some of you may know it well. Some of you may have been perplexed by the opening of this chapter, when Jesus is confronted by his own brothers who are wanting him to show himself publicly before the world. And to that end, they want him to go up to the feast. But Jesus says that he will not go up to the feast, only to later, as the chapter tells us, only to later go up to the feast and, yes, even publicly present himself. So, you might be confused. as to what is going on. Jesus saying, no, I will go up, no, I will not publicly display myself, and then he does go up and he does publicly display himself. What’s happened?

Well, that’s a secondary consideration for our grasp of the meaning of these verses, but tonight we want to focus on the first element, the feast. The Feast, as I said to you, is the Feast of Tabernacles. We would all do well to study the Feast of Tabernacles, and I think that by the time we’re at the conclusion of this evening’s message, you will understand why. The Feast is set out for us in the law, as you know. particularly in Leviticus chapter 23, and there are other passages in the Law that parallel the presentation of the Feast in that Levitical text. The Feast of Tabernacles is the third of the great Feasts that demarcate the Jewish calendar. The other two feasts being Passover and Pentecost, or the Feast of First Fruits. You know that with regard to these feasts that the Jews were commanded that they were to go up to the center of God’s worship and there keep these feasts. was a harvest feast that occurred in the fall of the year. But as we shall see, it involved much more than simply marking the ingathering of the harvest.

There’s another name for the feast, playing off of the idea of tabernacles. It was also called the Feast of Booths. It was so called because in celebrating it, the people were to live in huts. They were to live in little hovels that they constructed for themselves. Little dwelling places, little tabernacles, if you will.

And in so doing, they were to commemorate their past history. They were to mark their past history. Remembering through this activity of building little huts, little huddles, at the place where God’s glory appeared, where the celebration of God’s presence was taking place, they there were to commemorate the sojourn of their forefathers during the wilderness wanderings. Their dwelling places reminiscent of the humble dwellings that they had when they were traversing the wilderness of Sinai.

So it was that the Feast of Tabernacles was to be a yearly prescribed humiliation. Look right into the calendar. If you were understanding things aright, you come to the fall of the year, and here you have a prescribed humiliation. didn’t matter where you lived. You could have lived in a palace. You could have had the finest house in the city. But during this feast, you had to build a little hut, a hovel, and you were supposed to live there. So it is.

A yearly prescribed experience of humility and humiliation, when the people, regardless of the level of prosperity that they enjoyed, the level of prosperity that they had achieved in the land, were compelled in a concrete ceremony to mark their roots and their past, and supremely God’s graciousness to them in making them his people and preserving them through their wandering. and in their pilgrimage.

But this Feast of Tabernacles had more than just this connection to the wilderness experience of God’s people. For throughout Israel’s history, this Feast would figure prominently in the life of the There were certain celebrations that stood out as the nation progressed, as its history developed. Particular celebrations of the Feast of Tabernacles that informed their life, their understanding of who they were, their piety, their devotion. Did you know that Solomon’s dedication of the temple took place at the Feast of Tabernacles. Very interesting. Solomon’s dedication of the temple took place during the Feast of Tabernacles.

And because this is so, you see, in the mind and in the consciousness and in the piety of the people of Israel, this feast was now specifically related to, joined to, the templing of service. Interestingly, in this context then, we are compelled to watch as Israel builds its little hovels and booths around the glorious temple of the Lord. His booth. His blooming place. That temple stands even in marked contrast to the hollows in which they live, beckoning them to something higher, and even transcendent. But meanwhile, they live in their huts. One other instance.

When the people of Israel returned from captivity in Babylon, did you know that the Feast of Tabernacles marks the celebration of the restoration of the people, the repatriation of the Jews from their captivity, even the renewed service and its completed order under the administration of Israel? Nehemiah chapter 8 speaks about the renewed celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Ezra discovers in the lock, as he’s reading through it in the hearing of the people, the place where the Feast of Tabernacles was prescribed. And then he led the Jews of his day in keeping that feast afresh in the days of the refurbishing, then, of the Second Temple. that had been built in the place of Solomon’s.

Now, as to the feast itself, what might we say concerning it? It was prescribed to be a week-long feast, seven days, to which was added an eighth, so eight in all. The first seven days of this feast found the Israelites, as we have already remarked, living in their huts and puddles. And during these days we have a profusion, a literal profusion, of sacrifices being offered. In fact, more sacrifices offered in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles than any other feast among the Jews.

Also very interesting, as the celebration and keeping of the Feast develops, we have a very interesting ceremony that is played out along with the Feast that becomes very important as we consider later prophecies, and as we consider even the actions and words of Christ, particularly in the Gospel of John. There was a daily procession. Think of it. Can you see it? The priest in all of his ornate clothing, the people themselves thronged around him.

Procession formed, and each morning of the seven days prescribed for the feast, this procession would go out of the temple precincts to the southeast side and down the hill, descending to the fountain of Gihon, a fountain that supplied water to the pool of Siloam.

And it was there that the priest, who was carrying a golden pitcher, would fill his pitcher with water as the procession that had accompanied him recited together Isaiah 12, verse 3, which says, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And then the procession would retrace its steps, moving up the hill once more towards the temple. And as they moved, they sang the great parole, Psalms 113-118, as they moved along. And as they approached the altar, the procession then came to Resolution is recitation of, and it’s singing of, Psalm 118, verse 25.

O Lord, do save, we beseech thee. O Lord, we beseech thee, do send prosperity. And after they had sung that line, that verse from the psalm, the priest would pour out the water from the golden pitcher through a funnel. onto the ground. But he would also pour out a picture of wine that was already set there, through another funnel, onto the ground. The water and the wine together being poured out. Hold on to that. The eighth day of the Feast would come. marked by a culminating solemn assembly on which now the booths were taken down. Everyone dismantled their booth.

And the people then gave their attention to a specific series of sacrifices at the altar in the temple. Now there’s one other feature of the Feast of Tabernacles as it develops. for the Jews that bears mentioning at this point. For you see, the feast was also highlighted by a fantastical ancient light show. The custom was to set up four enormous lamps in the court of the women in the temple precincts. And at night, these lamps were lit, and they gave light to the whole city, chasing, as it were, the darkness. Now, all of these customs carried deep meaning for the Jews. Think of it as you let your mind review all of the elements. How many things are touched?

For we see in the Feast, in its particulars, something of the wilderness experience of Israel, the humble huts or hummels. mindful of the way in which the children of Israel lived during their wilderness journeys. In the water, we are reminded of water from a rock—are we not?—which comes forth and provides the people, then, an answer to their thirst while they are making their journey, and the lights that are set ablaze possibly reminiscent of the glory cloud itself, giving light to the people in the night. But equally, the features of this feast draw into consideration not just Israel’s life in the wilderness, but Israel’s life in the Promised Land. not simply that prior history, but that history that had now developed for them once they had entered the land of promise. The temple itself, the sacrifices and the temple service, the Shekinah, you remember, that filled the temple at Solomon’s dedication of it, the rain for a harvest in the water, in the symbol of water poured out from the pitcher. and the fruit of harvest in the wine also poured out.

Images of harvests completed and harvests anticipated filled then the celebration of the Feast of Booths. Images of fullness of blessing and the anticipation of continual blessing and prosperity, unending blessing and prosperity. All of this building an immense network of religious possibility out of the foundation of this single feast. The considerations are immense in their proportions. And add to this in the lamps of the feasts, the expectation of the coming of God himself, and of a perpetual day, a perpetual day of light, as his people dwell in his radiance. And as you add this final touch, the possibilities, religiously speaking, are compounded exponentially.

As your mind race on to Revelation, the last book of the Bible, to chapter 22, where you read about a city in which there is no sun and there are no lights in the heaven, for the Lamb is the light of the city of God. But even in the Old Testament such possibilities are recognized as the prophets look forward to a great and climactic celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, the last feast of the year, the Harvest Feast. This hope which the prophets express may in fact stand behind a number of wonderful texts. For instance, in Isaiah, one text stands out. I have in mind a text you all know, Isaiah 55, verse 1. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. You who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and meal without money and without cost. In the final Feast of Tabernacles, you don’t need any currency.

But very clearly, whatever we might make of that statement from Isaiah’s prophecy, the hope of a great climactic celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles clearly stands out when we consider Zachariah’s prophecy, chapters 9 through 14, and parallel passages from the Book of Ezekiel, and its remarks concerning the great temple that is to come.

Here in these prophecies, the feast is joined to the coming triumphant day of the Lord, specifically within Zachariah, and according to Zachariah 9. The Messiah comes to Jerusalem in the setting of the Feast of Tabernacles, victorious and riding upon an ass. And in Zechariah 12, the Lord pours out his spirit of compassion on Jerusalem, and that in keeping with the imagery that we find in the Feast of Tabernacles. In Zechariah 13, the Lord opens up the fountains of water for David’s house, for the purpose of cleansing the city of God. as well as making provision for her. And in chapter 14 of Zechariah, the Lord stands on the Mount of Olives.

I want you to note John 8, verse 1. Some say this text is spurious. Well, if it is spurious, I say to you, it is genius. In the context of the Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus’ presence at the Feast of Tabernacles, you have this statement in John, Jesus went up to the Mount of Olives.

He stands on the Mount of Olives. I then advise you to look at Zechariah 14, verse 4, where you will see the promise that in the great day, the Lord himself will stand upon the Mount of Olives. In chapter 14, then, the Lord stands upon the Mount of Olives, even as living waters now flow from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean, even to the Dead Sea, making all live.

And at the end of the chapter, that fourteenth chapter in Zechariah, the true people of God come to celebrate them regularly, continually, perpetually, the Feast of Tabernacles in sanctity. And the Feast of Tabernacles is specifically mentioned at the conclusion of Zechariah. And you will note, as the prophecy of Zechariah concludes in that particular setting, we are told that there is no Canaanite in the house of God or in the precincts of the city of the Lord.

Or, as another translation would have it, no merchant, no one who buys and sells. Do you want to go back to Isaiah 55 verse 1? Everyone who thirsts, come to the water. Drink freely, without cost, without payment. There is not even a merchant there. to collect payment, or to assize tax.

From this prophecy of Zachariah, we could judge that the Jews fully expected their fulfillment in actual rivers of water, rivers of the waters of life flowing from the city of Jerusalem, that city set in Palestine. There, with its seven hills, that great city with its temple and with all of its feasts. This then, in the consciousness of the Jew, the Jew’s hope for life for the people of God. This city, this actual city, and its administration, in his estimation, the source of eternal provision and bounty and prosperity.

But Jesus, John 7, Verse 37, on the last day of the last feast, on the great day, stands and cries out, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. What is Jesus saying? He is the hope for life of the people of God. He is the source of eternal provision and prosperity. He, in his person, is the city of God and its temple in whom we must dwell if we are to have life. He is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Do you need further proof of this? Turn to John 19, verse 34. You are told there that after Jesus died on the cross, a soldier took his spear and pierced Jesus’ side. And from the side of Jesus’ body there immediately came forth blood and water.” Do you remember the wine and water? in the ceremony of the feast. In his death, Jesus becomes the source and guarantee of perpetual bounty and prosperity.

And as John 7.39 tells us, the Holy Spirit is the one by whom glorious participation in eternal life, even as it was anticipated in the Feast of Tabernacles, is realized. Have you drunk deeply of Christ’s provision? Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Have you entered the celebration of the last, final, and even continuing Feast of Cabernets?

Dear Lord, we confess that we are tempted to look elsewhere for provision, and we acknowledge that it is very difficult for us at times to keep our head straight and our minds right. We plead with you, Lord, that we would not be distracted nor confused, but that we would honor you by honoring your son.

And Lord, in honoring him, we would see how all things flow up into Him. Even to the end, His life itself would flow from Him. Such life as must be ours, if we are Yours. So Lord, we pray that we are Yours, and we will ever be so. in the eternal celebration of the Feast of Cabernet Apples. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

December 3, 1995